Photo by John Maynard

In the mid-eighties, there was one stage race in America that ruled them all: the Coors Classic. John Maynard was there in 1984 and 1985, shooting photos and recently they surfaced on Road Bike Action. Countless racers from all over the world would come out to the Coors Classic. Ron Kiefel was one of those racers. His career would later be made on 7-Eleven and Motorola, two American teams sponsored by Eddy Merckx. The later being one of the first teams to use the legendary MXL tubesets. The entire set is a prime example of the golden age of cycling. Don't miss this one! Check it out at Road Bike Action.

Tracko beat me to the post on this but what can I say, it's worth it and I had to wait till Monday to put it up!

Last week's Merckx Mondays post was one of the highest-trafficking entries of the week. More people emailed me about the Eddy Merckx steam engine image than anything else. Most of them were queries as to the origins of the illustration and I had no idea where it came from. Luckily for me, Aaron of Six Eleven and Hipster Nascar reached out with a nice tidbit of information.

If you're confused as to why there's a sexy pin-up girl up there, read on!

This week's Merckx Mondays is brought to you by reader submissions. If you have an Eddy Merckx bicycle and want it to be posted, email me! Just make sure the photo's top notch. First up is this print that I caught on a Tumblr last week. The unfortunate thing about Tumblrs is all it takes is one image to be posted without credit for it to spread like wild fire. I cannot for the life of me find the artist who did this. Does anyone know? Luckily, the rest of the images and photos are credited below. Checkem out!

Believe me, I know what you're thinking and no, it's not Photoshop, just a wacky Merckx Mondays brought to you by those little nuanced moments in cycling and Tears for Gears. If you're as confused as I was when I first saw this photo, you've gotta check out the rest of the post!

Edi Merukusu Mondays!

Those of you who followed the Tour at all this year might have noticed that special Eddy Merckx bike that Sylvain Chavanel was riding after his stage 2 victory. The EMX-5 isn't my cup of tea, I'm a steel man but that doesn't mean that I completely ignore what Merckx is doing for modern racing. Over in Brussels, the Merckx team got together and did something special for Sylvain's Tour bike. A reader from Belgium sent me some photos for a special Merckx Mondays.

Check the rest out below.

Yeah yeah yeah, so I'm an hour late on this. I had originally planned a different post for today's Merckx Mondays but then I came across this. All I know is this better be a joke!

Wanna see the full story? Click on below.

Photo via Hennie Kuiper's Flickr

Eddy Merckx had some of the top athletes riding his bikes in cycling's heyday. I've referenced Andy Hampsten a few times for Merckx Mondays but today's entry is special. I caught this email from Andy via a popular cycling email list. It discusses Andy's love for Eddy's mastery of matching riders to frames.

Check it out below! It's worth the read!

This week's Merckx Mondays is filled with user-submitted material and I gotta admit, not only does it make my life easier but it gives me a fresh perspective on things. First up is this awesome post over on Velodramatic featuring the quest for Eddy Merckx in a forest on the road to Spa. It's a great read for sure!

With the Tour in full swing, we're reminded of the greats that ruled the roads on Italian tires and steel bikes for decades. A video and two steel beauties await you. Check out the continuation of Merckx Mondays below!

So, I'm in the process of moving to my new apartment and in all the hustle and bustle, I didn't get around to setting up a Merckx Mondays post but what I do have is a folder on my desktop filled with awesome photographs of the Cannibal in his heyday. Ernesto Colnago made the Molteni bikes for Merckx prior to him riding his own frames. Here he is checking one out with the master and another photo of him adjusting his saddle while riding. When racers would break their saddle rails, mid-race, the support car would send them a new post and saddle. Rather than stopping, many racers chose to switch them out, mid-stroke.

Sometimes, older posts reappear in strange places. This week's Merckx Mondays focuses on a worldwide courier legend once again. If you're sharp enough, you already know who's bike this is and where this image is from.

If not, check out the answers to those two questions below!

Photo by Emiliano Granado

Uh oh. Merckx bikes are showing up in fashion photos! Well, Outlier photo shoots anyway. To promote their new Ultralight Pants, the guys from Outlier went over to Broad Channel, Queens to shoot some dusk photos. The model here's riding a nice 7-Eleven re-issue built with Record components.

Seriously great build! More on the pants later. For now, it's a Merckx Mondays filled with thousand dollar production frames and gorgeous pista builds!

Read on below.

I caught wind of these a little while ago on Trackosaurus Rex and was dumb-founded as to why I hadn't heard about them from the Chari & Co crew. Before I could even post about them, Kyle took the post down. Now it's back up and fair game! Pulling inspiration from team 7-Eleven, these Minority Works sunglasses may not be as fashionable as cycling shades from the 90's, but they'll fit right into your current wardrobe. Here's what the Chari & Co has to say about them:

We went with the color way and theme of the great 7-11 team that rode Merckx bikes and represented everything awesome and exciting about cycle racing. The 7-11 team has an unusual cult following here in the United States but everyone can appreciate the history of the team and of course the legacy of Eddy Merckx. The glasses are made by Minority Works and are available with two lense colors, black and clear.

7-Eleven guys! ;-) When are they going to be available? Anyone know?

Check out some more tidbits below, including some sad news...

Yes, It's Memorial Day and the last thing I want to be doing now is blogging but it is Monday and I can't let this one slide! A couple months ago, I came across an article on the 1969 Tour de France. After losing the Tour of Italy, Merckx grabbed hold of the Tour with one strategy: "Attack".

The whole article can be found over at Phil Bikes.

We've seen multiple examples of how Eddy Merckx makes for a great subject on a t-shirt but I've never seen something like this! Last week while I was in Philly, I met Dom, who was wearing this Crucifixed shirt; a local bike club. When he rolled up to the Water St. Sessions, it was the first thing I noticed. Scrawled across his chest in black metal-inspired typography is "Cannibal" with an image of Merckx below. You'll recognize the image from the famous Stephan Vanfleteren's photo of Eddy in his Molteni jersey.

Philly produced some awesome content for this week's Merckx Mondays. Check out some more below!

Today's Merckx Mondays was in the works last week when I met up with Mat to shoot his Serotta at Continuum Cycles. Jeff, the owner of the shop, always comes up on these amazing deals. Someone was getting rid of their old race bike from the 90's. He was the original owner and used to race it at the CRCA-sanctioned events in Central Park. Turns out, it had been in his apartment for over 10 years and he needed some cash, so he took it to Jeff and he bought it.

If you have a keen eye for detail, you'll notice that there are no Eddy Merckx castings on the seatstay caps. What's that all about? Check out more photos and an explanation of this beauty below!

Phil Anderson's name is synonymous with other cycling greats of his time. Although Lance is the one rider from Motorola that's made an international (and pop) name for himself, if you watched cycling in the 90's, you're sure to remember Anderson. In this week's Merckx Mondays, we get a special look at Phil's Motorola that currently resides down under, through the eyes of Ride Cycling Review magazine.

Photo by Kevin Bolger

Meet 007. No he's not the suit-wearing spy touting fancy weaponry from the movies. Even if he's not armed with guns hidden in pens, or laser-beams, he does have a fancy ride. James Moore, aka 007, aka the General is an old-school NYC Messenger. He worked hard on the streets during the 80's and 90's. All the young cats looked up to him, including Kevin Bolger. Some of you know Kevin as Squid and he was kind enough to take this photo of James while he was in NYC visiting his mom. The General now resides in Berlin, where he continues to work and ride.

Much like James, his Eddy Merckx is bursting with style. Look at that setup. Pure fire. If you see James and can react quick enough to say hey, do so but be warned, he's fast! On Friday alone he did 14 runs for Cyclehawk. At age 53, 007 is enjoying life.

Thanks for the photo Squid and James, ride safe man! If you want to see what the NYC scene looked like back in the 80's and 90's, check out this photo gallery on Cyclehawk.

A while back, I posted about Andy Hampsten's most famous photo; him covered in snow on the Passo Gavia in 1988, while riding a Serotta-built Huffy. The photo inspired that House Industries print and even Andy to make his own prints of the photo with a graphic overlay. He even signs each print. I ordered one of these back when I first posted about it and it finally came in the mail. I guess it takes a while to get Andy to sign them!

Sure, it may not seem like that big of a deal, but let's not forget Hampsten's legacy. For this week's Merckx Mondays, we'll take a look at some of Andy's moments while riding for Motorola in the 90's.

Don't shoot me. I can explain but first you have to make it through some miscellaneous Merckx photos and endorsements. It's another Merckx Mondays!

As each Merckx Mondays approaches, I find myself trying to produce 100% original content. Sure, it's easy to find photos of Eddy Merckx bikes online but I really enjoy reading into the Eddy Merckx brand and the products associated with the company. I mentioned in the previous post that I'd be discussing Eddy Merckx's own brand of cycling shoes today. Not the original Adidas shoes, but a special company backed by a proprietary cleating system.

So read up below to find out just what those shoes were and what I thought of them.