The bikes I dreamed about were not being made in the Schwinn
factory in America, but were designed and manufactured in Italy. Eddy Merckx, a
famous bike racer of the 1970s, was having bikes hand-built by Ugo de Rosa in
Milan, a bike-building legend in his own right. I would pretend that I too,
like Eddy, was racing my bike for the final win in the Triple Crown of Cycling.
A feat never before accomplished, I was about to win the Giro d’Italla, the
Tour de France, and the Road World Cycling Championship all in one season. The
crowd went wild as I flew from the maple-lined streets of town through winding
pastureland roads with giant white pines standing like gendarmes at every
intersection, and finally across the uptown metal girder bridge to the finish
line in the common across from the Congregational church. By the end of his
career, Merckx, a native of Belgium, had become a national hero and an
international cycling superstar. In 1974, Eddy gave his winning De Rosa to the
Pope, who prominently displayed it in the Chapel of the Madonna del Ghisallo in
Rome, a church dedicated to bicycle racing. I walked over and triumphantly
leaned my Schwinn against the steps of the Congregational church, feeling
satisfied.
Merckx winning the Tour De France 1971
