BRUSSELS: Cycling legend Eddy Merckx has been fitted with a cardiac pacemaker to correct a heart rhythm problem, he was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview yesterday.
The 67-year-old told the Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad that the operation was performed at a clinic in the northern city of Genk on Thursday and was done as a precautionary measure.
“I was operated on by doctor Johan Van Lierde, a friend of mine,” said Merckx, a five-time winner of cycling’s greatest race, the Tour de France. “My heart rate has been under 40 (beats per minute) since birth or thereabouts.
“As a result it was wise to take preventative measures to avoid certain problems, particularly at night.”
The pacemaker is designed to give an electric charge allowing the heart to beat at a more regular frequency.
“I’m now happy about all this,” added Merckx, who was due to leave hospital on Friday and could be given the all-clear to get back on his bike in about two weeks’ time.
A biography of the cyclist, published in March last year, said that he had a heart problem from the start of his career and should never have even competed professionally.
“Eddy Merckx, The Cannibal”, by Daniel Friebe, quoted Italian cardiologist Giancarlo Lavezzaro, who examined the cyclist during the 1968 Tour of Italy, as saying that he “rode his entire career with a sword of Damacles over his head”.
Lavezzero concluded that Merckx had a non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy -- a genetic condition in which the heart muscle thickens, affecting its functioning.
Symptoms include shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, lightheadedness, fatigue and fainting. The condition is the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes.
Merckx, who was not told the doctor’s conclusions, said later that he always knew he had an “odd heart” that was “particularly big”, adding that his father and uncles all died young of heart problems. REUTERS
Parisien wins Catalonia stage, Martin extends lead
MADRID: Canadian Francois Parisien won the fifth stage of the Tour of Catalonia yesterday as Ireland’s Daniel Martin extended his overall lead.
Parisien of the Argos-Shimano team took the stage honours on the line as 13 riders finished the 156 kilometre ride from Rialp to Lleida to a time of three hours thirty-two minutes and two seconds.
However, Martin was the real winner of the day as he gained a bonus second by finishing third in a sprint and then gained three more seconds on second-placed Joaquim Rodriguez in the dash to the line to extend his advantage to 14 seconds with just two stages remaining.
After two gruelling days of climbing through the Pyrenees, yesterday’s more manageable stage saw the riders finish nearly 500m lower in Lleida than they began in Rialp.
Just after the 50km mark though Olivier Kaisen (Lotto) and Tristan Valentin (Cofidis) made a break and quickly built up nearly a four minute advantage, with the peloton catching them with about 15km to go.
The big names then began to bunch together as last year’s Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins briefly led Team Sky to the front of the pack.
In an incredibly tight finish Parisien surged towards the line to take his first stage victory of the season. REUTERS
