If only this bike could talk. It’s clearly an Eddy Merckx team bike from the late Molteni era; almost certainly from 1972. What an incredible year that was for Merckx.
He achieved a Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double, won three Monuments (Milan-San Remo, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Il Lombardia), and secured other victories, including La Flèche Wallonne, the Trofeo Baracchi and the hour record in Mexico City.
This wasn’t his bike; the frame is far too small, but it’s exciting to suppose that it might have been ridden alongside him, and ultimately behind him, by a supportive teammate on the stage-defining slopes of the Col d’Izoard and the Passo dello Stelvio.
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Owner of the Velo Pages, Richard Hoddinott is one of the UK’s preeminent bike collectors with well over 100 bikes. They range from disability trikes, to Tour de France machines from the 1920s and bikes ridden by the stars of the 1960-70s British time trial scene. Richard doesn’t restore the bikes he owns, instead he keeps them in the condition he bought them, believing that every mark or scratch and the dirt still on them, is part of the bike’s history.
“There’s a unique quality to this bike,” says current owner Richard Hoddinott of vintage specialists The Velo Pages. “The handling is very purposeful, it’s special. The build is top-notch too, Campagnolo throughout, with Cinelli bars and stem, and a Unicanitor saddle. I particularly love the patina, the worn 531 decals and the large, characterful Nuovo Record chainring that’s been drilled in a slightly haphazard fashion.”
A Campagnolo chainset with drillium chainrings
(Image credit: Future)
Merckx employed Belgian entrepreneur Fernand Kessels to supply Molteni Team bikes in the early seventies, along with a number from both Colnago and De Rosa. Kessels was more at home behind a desk than behind brazing goggles, so he commissioned various high-end frame builders, including Marcel van der Este.
(Image credit: Future)
Tantalisingly, there’s a note painted on the underside of the bottom bracket that reads ‘K V.D. ELST’. Does the K stand for Kessels, and the rest of the script indicate van der Este? A misspelling seems unlikely, but it’s possible. Or perhaps it identifies the shop or rider the bike was intended for after the team had finished with it. We’ll never know.
