When Tadej Pogacar won the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the World Championships in 2024 – alongside others, many wondered if this was the greatest season ever seen in cycling. However, 50 years earlier, one man had already achieved that triple. That man, of course, was Eddy Merckx, the protagonist of a 1974 year that we analyze in detail and ponder on which of the two campaigns was the best.
The Belgian opened his season by winning the Trofeo Laigueglia, then held in February. More discreet results followed: 4th in the Giro di Sardegna, 12th in the Sassari-Cagliari and 6th in the Omloop Het Volk. The first big race of the year was Paris-Nice, where Merckx again demonstrated his dimension: he won the prologue, two stages and finished 3rd overall, only beaten by Joop Zoetemelk and Alain Santy.
In the Setmana Catalana, Merckx was second, again behind Zoetemelk, although he won both the points classification and the mountains classification. His time in the classics left a collection of honorable places:
- 3rd in the Tour of Flanders
- 2nd in Gent-Wevelgem
- 4th in Paris-Roubaix
- 3rd in the Coppa Placci
- 2nd in the Rund um den Henninger Turm
- Victory at the Grand Prix de Momignies
Giro-Tour double
Before the Giro, Merckx finished 4th in the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, behind Walter Godefroot, Michael Wright and Freddy Maertens. In the Italian race he signed another exhibition: he won the time trial, took an additional stage, won the overall ahead of Gianbattista Baronchelli and Felice Gimondi.
Without pause, only five days later, he started the Tour de Suisse, where he finished in the top five in all the stages and won the overall, the mountains and the regularity.
A week later he was already at the Tour de France, where his performance was historic: victory in the prologue, one of the two individual time trials and six more stages, adding eight wins (out of 26 stages, not the current 21) on his way to an undisputed yellow jersey, beating Raymond Poulidor and Vicente Lopez by more than eight minutes.
After a three-week break, Merckx returned as if nothing had happened: 5th in the Leeuwse Pijl and 9th in the GP Union Dortmund. The big event came in Montréal, where he won the World Championships (the third and last of his career), accompanied on the podium by the Frenchmen Poulidor and Mariano Martinez. Interestingly, Pogacar has the chance of matching that achievement this year in… Montréal.
The campaign did not end there. Merckx won the Critérium des As, was 6th in the Circuit de l’Aulne, 5th in the Coppa Agostoni, 2nd in the Giro di Lombardia (second only to Roger de Vlaeminck), 4th in A Travers Lausanne, won the Escalada a Montjuic, including all three stages which took place on the same day and finished 3rd in the Trofeo Baracchi.
Eddy Merckx is one of the greatest cyclists of all time