Half Man, Half Bike: The Life of Eddy Merckx, Cycling's Greatest Champion

"Half Man, Half Bike: The Life of Eddy Merckx" is a fascinating biography of one of the greatest cyclists of all time. The book is written by William Fotheringham, a well-known cycling journalist and author, who provides a detailed account of Merckx's life, career, and achievements.What I appreciate most about this book is the way it portrays Merckx's life as more than just his cycling career. The book delves deep into his personal life, childhood, and upbringing, which helps to paint a complete picture of the man behind the bike. I was particularly interested in learning about the challenges Merckx faced throughout his life and career, including his struggles with injuries and controversies.The book is well-researched and provides a comprehensive overview of Merckx's career, including his numerous victories, records, and the challenges he faced along the way. Fotheringham's writing style is engaging and compelling, and he does an excellent job of bringing Merckx's story to life.

Very informative, well written and entertaining. Interesting insight into some of his greatest races and competitors. The general cycling public knowledge of this man is full of misinformation. This book cleared a lot up for me and instilled respect for a great athlete and competitor. he is everything I want a professional athlete to be - humble, dedicated, focused, a master of his craft, apolitical. Interesting team dynamics and cycling politics associated with his rise and incredible career. Since he as humble and not a self promoter, he got crushed by lairs and jealous competitors. This guy was so much better than Lance or anyone else that raced. He is still alive and is not part of the cycling elite - very interesting, when many of his rivals, who he crushed, are the face of professional cycling and the grand tours. It is interesting, Eddy experienced similar personal scrutiny and media critics as Lance, despite his incredible career, clean racing, passion and charitable public persona. A jealous and indignant media will tear anyone apart if they decide they don't like you, or you offend them in some silly way. It is interesting to see this shredding by the media of this great man occurred 40 years ago, relegating him to a relatively minor figure in the current sport. he should be at the head of the sport instead of those pompous, fat, idiotic politicians who are.

I grew up in the 70's and eighties. I raced bikes locally and met my wife bike racing. We still ride together. I was always amazed at Eddie Merckx insatiable desire to win. He was one of a kind and no one will ever match his total domination of a season not just a tour but a total season. 500 plus victories!! OMG

- Generally well written. Having read several books about Merckx I was intrigued by the premise of this book to explain the man's mind. Mr Fotheringham has interviewed many contemporaries. Sometimes it shows, but seldom does it feel as if we are being pulled into the moment, let alone pulled into the man's soul.- Each chapter starts with a dramatically told key moment in Eddy Merckx's career, followed by a chronological recounting of events. This, combined with the repetition of information in different chapters, gives the feel of reading different (newspaper) articles rather than a book. Moreover, the lack of variation in style gets stale quickly.- Some mistakes in spelling and translation (e.g. from Dutch/Flemish to English).

I would strongly recommend this book even for those only faintly interested in cycling. As a current recreational rider and former amateur racer this was both an informative and insightful read. I particularly enjoyed reading about his family and upbringing and the touchy relationship in Belgium between the Walloon's and Flemish. It was also informative to the read the politics in the early years around not him chasing Belgian teams but rather switching to Peugeot and then Faema and Molteni. However the book shines in descriptions of classic races and victories, particularly the clashes with Ocana and Fuente. Cycling is poorer for an era where there was much greater variability in performance and Merckx could lose 8 minutes in a stage when at his prime. In the current climate his two positive tests were a good read, a product of naivety rather than a systematic attempt to deceive it seems. The short description of family and an amazingly supportive wife will stick. Great book.

I enjoyed it. As a lover of all things bicycle to read about the greatest of all was inspiring. It was a little hard to follow at times but overall gave a good understanding standing of his life and a writer's view of his life and personality. I don't think that any one can understand another completely especially a person of Mr. Merck caliber.

I was an early teenager living in Belgium (live overseas now) when the Merckx era started.He certainly had a good influence on our generation.We didn't have time for naughty stuff, all that mattered was jumping on our bikes after school or during Holidays, race friends, pretending to be Merckx (I did).The writer reveals a lot of details of Merckx's career in his book. The drive, the ambition, the struggle of the Man. Details I was never aware of.My admiration for Eddy Merckx remains the same after all those years and it was nice to be able to look back at all the achievements of his.If you are a cycling fan or a Merckx fan, certainly worth reading.

Great insight into the life of Eddy Merckx. My one complaint is that there is too much to be written about and not enough pages to cover it. More than once the author briefly mentions something that should be given more detail. More pictures would have been nice as well, especially when the author refers to pictures that aren't even in the book.

Great book, well-written. It highlights Merckx' single-mindedness and sharp focus. Very like Beryl Burton.

I was 22 and living in Belgium in 1969 when Eddy Merckx won his first Tour and became the best-known Belgium after King Beaudoin (later he overtook the King !)This book is very well documented and if you are a cycling expert you can easily follow, recollect and even learn things about Merckx and his reign even though I thought I knew practically all about it??I also enjoyed the non-translated "Bruxellaire" words and phrases and the historic background of the Flemish/Walloon antagonism which shaped the cycling world at that time.

I'm sure I'll enjoy the book, but I was really lucky to get it at all!The address label was so badly printed that the first digit of my house number was completely missing from the Australia Post label.Fortunately the postie knew our correct house number.I'll be happy to provide a photo of the label in private feedback.

Another great cycling book from Fotheringham. He seems to have a real knack for bringing cyclists from the past to life and putting some of the excitment of the cares from years back into his texts. I found it a real page turner and read it in less than a week. I really needed to find out the next stage of the story, how the race was won, etc. It certainly made me seek out some of the film and video footage from the races covered. I found the text from Fotheringham much more exciting than any of the film though, which whilst says something about 1970s cycle filming techniques its more a reflection on the writing abilities of the author.There is one problem with this book that, how big a problem I'm not really sure and unless one reads French or Flemish, then its unlikely to be possible to tell. The problem is that the book doesn't really have much in the way of interviews with Merckx himself. Sure there are some quotes, stories and such from old interviews between him and the author and of course there is lots of historical sources and interviews with contempories but there did seem to be a noticeable omission of direct interviews with the main man himself. Not sure why that might be, I can only infer that he actively did not want to be involved, which is a shame, as I am sure it would have added something.Its still an excellent book though and considering the lack of alternative English language books on Merckx, then its required reading. Highly recommended.

Lots of insight into the greatest cyclist ever. Various views of the man as seen by those who rode with him and against him