Some very fancy bikes were auctioned this week, most notably Tadej Pogačar’s Tour-winning Y1Rs selling for $190,500, but this lovingly restored replica of Eddy Merckx’s 1972 Hour Record-breaking ride also went under the hammer and fetched $12,065 (around £9,040).
Merckx broke cycling’s fabled Hour Record at the end of his 1972 season, a year during which, on the road, he had won his fourth Tour de France, third Giro d’Italia, fifth Milan-San Remo, third Liège-Bastogne-Liège, third Flèche Wallonne, second Giro Il Lombardia, and hoovered up four Giro stage wins and six at the Tour. Not bad.
Heading to altitude in Mexico for the record attempt, Merckx set a new best of 49.431km and declared it the hardest ride he’d ever done. The distance stood for 12 years, Francesco Moser ultimately the first to breach the 50km mark, the Italian benefiting from technological advances such as disc wheels and more aerodynamic clothing (as well as now-admitted links to very competent medical practitioners).
Restored Colnago track bike sells at auction (credit: Colnago/Sotheby’s)There were no disc wheels for Merckx, although the Colnago the Belgian rode to the record was still believed by some, at the time, to be the most expensive and lightest bike ever made at 5.4kg.
The actual machine ridden by Merckx now sits on display at the Brussels metro station named after Belgium’s greatest cycling son, this one auctioned at Sotheby’s built to the Cannibal’s dimensions, but unused, and now restored for a new (very rich) owner.
Restored Colnago track bike sells at auction (credit: Colnago/Sotheby’s)Merckx’s Hour bike signalled the last time the record was held by someone riding a ‘normal’ bicycle, the technological space age of Moser and legendary British riders Graeme Obree and Chris Boardman, followed by Tony Rominger and Miguel Indurain ultimately leading the UCI, at the turn of the millennium, to clamp down on what you could and couldn’t ride.
> ‘Ow much? Tadej Pogačar’s Tour de France-winning Colnago Y1Rs fetches staggering $190,500 at auction – over $170,000 above estimate
Boardman ultimately returned on a UCI-legal machine in 2000 and bested Merckx’s distance of almost 30 years earlier by just ten metres, further exemplifying the incredible achievement of riding 49.431km on the 1972 Colnago almost a third of a century earlier. With that said, in Daniel Friebe’s Merckx biography, Boardman did point out that he believes he lost around 500m in aerodynamics due to the UCI, by then, requiring riders to wear a full-size legal helmet, not just a leather skullcap like Merckx wore.
Restored Colnago track bike sells at auction (credit: Colnago/Sotheby’s)While not the actual bike used this one, built to Merckx’s dimensions for his ’72 record, has been restored and this week sold at auction for a little over $12,000.
Restored Colnago track bike sells at auction (credit: Colnago/Sotheby’s)The listing on Sotheby’s auction website said the frame itself features perfectly round Columbus SL tubing, with reinforced seat stays, a “testament to the engineering principles of the era: purity, stiffness, and speed above all”.
Restored Colnago track bike sells at auction (credit: Colnago/Sotheby’s)It has been “restored with care and authenticity” and “embodies the spirit of a transformative chapter in cycling, when innovation, ambition, and athletic brilliance aligned to push the limits of what was possible”.
Restored Colnago track bike sells at auction (credit: Colnago/Sotheby’s)
Restored Colnago track bike sells at auction (credit: Colnago/Sotheby’s)
Restored Colnago track bike sells at auction (credit: Colnago/Sotheby’s)Check out the rest of our Bike at Bedtime series here.