Vintage Eddy Merckx lost his bike TDF tour de france 1969

By Jan Vandevelde

Eddy verloor zijn fiets naar pagina 6

It is also this Pela bicycle that was used by Daniel Rebour for the well-known illustrations of the '69 TdF bike.

But two things stand out here:

« Although Merckx’ frame was built in Belgium with British tubes… »
« Sur la « Eddy Merckx » du vainqueur, produit des Ets KESSELS S.A. d’Ostende… »

Kessels from Ostend (Belgium) would have built Eddy’s 1969 TdF bike…??? First and foremost: there was not one 1969 bicycle, there were at least three: a Masi, a Pela and what I believe to be a “Terryn – Vandenneste (?)” bike. Only about the latter I have my doubts. Could it have been built by Kessels? Kessels was above all a salesman. His company assembled bikes, but he was not a frame builder. In 1969 he signs an agreement with Merckx to allow him to make and sell replicas of the original Merckx bike.

The frames of these Kessels replicas were built at Vaneenooghe in Ruislede, with Reynolds tube. The bikes were most probably assembled in Ostend, by Kessels. These were not yet the hi-end bikes, which would come later, during the Molteni years. But this didn't stop Kessels from pretending he supplied all the team bikes:

Conclusion: we still haven't found the '69 TdF bike… But we do know that (contrary to what is stated in the Knack article) there were not one, but at least three bikes. A Masi, a Pela and a mystery bike. And Eddy's quote in the Knack article (“That's a Charles Terryn” … “I won my first Tour on such a bike. One of Belgian make.”) could indicate that the third bike is actually a Terryn-Vandenneste was. The fact that there were (at least) three bicycles therefore increases the chance of finding an original '69 TdF bicycle by a factor of three!

Jan Vandevelde

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