Eddy Merckx (1966)

It is not exactly a great secret among the cycling cognoscenti that a young Eddy Merckx became somewhat disenchanted with those stock Peugeot PX-10 bicycles officially issued to Peugeot-BP-Michelin team riders. Consequently, and most likely strongly influenced by teammate Tom Simpson who was at the time himself riding a Masi disguised as a Peugeot, Merckx would eventually have Faliero Masi also build for him a custom bicycle using Nervex Dubois lugs which was then subsequently painted and decaled in Peugeot-BP-Michelin team livery - a pseudo Peugeot which Merckx used throughout the latter half of his 1967 season. Seen here early in 1966 after having just signed on with Peugeot-BP-Michelin, Eddy Merckx stands along with fellow Belgian rider Patrick Sercu (...a teammate of Merckx during his first season as a professional in 1965 with Solo-Superia and someone who Merckx would make a point of recruiting to join him when he moved once again to Faema in 1968) flanking what is most certainly at this point in time a genuine Peugeot PX-10.