Cycling, Eddy Merckx at 80 reveals: "They offered me money to sell the Giro d'Italia"

"They offered me money to sell the Giro". This is the shocking revelation that Eddy Merckx, who will turn 80 on June 17 , made during an interview with 'Corriere della Sera' in which the former cycling champion opens up about himself in all its aspects.

The 1969 Giro is linked to one of the most dramatic pages of Italian television : the interview that Sergio Zavoli did with the rider in room 11 of the Excelsior Hotel in Albisola.

Merckx had been disqualified for doping. Lying in bed, he repeated, crying: "I didn't take anything". "Absolutely not," Merckx reiterated. "I remember well what happened in Savona and I was crying, of course I was crying. I was ready to go, they did a counter-analysis of the urine taken the night before, and they stopped me. It was the same product they had found in Gimondi the year before, fencamfamine: he was cleared, however. I had no reason to dope. It was a stupid stage, flat, I had almost won the Giro. I was in pink, and so I knew I would certainly be checked. Someone set me up. And the pink jersey went to Gimondi, even if he refused to wear it".

Eddy Merckx (ANSA)

The Belgian phenomenon was thus stripped of the pink jersey and of an almost certain victory, while the case sparked several controversies in the world of sport, not only in Italy.

In the interview with 'Corriere della Sera' Eddy Merckx then recounts another episode, which is linked to the doping scandal, namely the fact that he was offered money to sell the Giro.

The one who offered him money, he explains, was "Rudy Altig of Salvarani. If I had accepted, maybe I wouldn't have tested positive ." But Merckx didn't accept : "A Giro isn't for sale," he observes. When asked if, in his opinion, Gimondi knew about the offer, the former champion replies: "Altig was a teammate of his. I really think so." He says, in any case, that he has always had a good relationship with Gimondi: "With him, with his daughter. I cried when he died. On a human level, we got along well.

But then in the race everyone defended their own interests. Felice Gimondi was my lifelong opponent. And he was a great rider. He had already won the Tour and the Giro before I arrived. He won the Giro again after I retired."

The nickname 'The Cannibal' - he reveals - was "invented by an eleven-year-old girl , Catherine, daughter of one of my teammates and then rivals, Christian Raymond, with whom I had an excellent relationship. He called home in the evening, she asked her: 'But does your friend Merckx never let you win?' Christian replied: 'Never. Merckx doesn't leave us anything'. 'So he's a cannibal'. And I was a cannibal forever".

Eddy Merckx (LaPresse)