A moment in time De Vlaeminck dominates the Tour de Suisse

He may be best known as a master of the cobbled Classics, but in 1975 Roger De Vlaeminck outshone even Eddy Merckx at the Tour de Suisse

- GILES BELBIN

As the 77 starters of the 39th Tour de Suisse assembled in Baden on 12th June 1975 for an uphill prologue to Baldegg, there was one key question hanging in the air: how would Eddy Merckx go? It may be surprising that observers would be questioning the prowess of the most successful cyclist of all time before any race, let alone one that he had claimed the previous year. He was also the reigning World Champion, having secured his third rainbow jersey the previous August in Montreal, and had enjoyed one of his finest spring Classics campaigns, winning Milan-San Remo, Amstel Gold Race, Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, as well as claiming podium spots at Paris-Roubaix and Flèche Wallonne within a single month, on top of winning the six-stage Setmana Catalana.

But while 1975 had started well for Merckx, in mid-May he had been struck down with tonsilitis and missed the Giro d’Italia. He went to the Tour de Romandie and the Dauphiné Libéré instead, where he finished 14th and 10th respectively. There were just three days between the end of the Dauphiné and the start of the Tour de Suisse, hence the questions.

‘We can assume that a Merckx in full possession of his means would find no rival up to his measure on the roads of Switzerland,’ wrote Jean-Pierre Gattoni in the Journal de Genève on the eve of the race. ‘But this is not the case and, if the Belgian starts as favourite despite everything, he will still have to watch over and tame men who have been hardened by the Tour of Italy.’