With an amateur career comprised of an even number of 80 wins outright, a twelfth place finish in the Road Race Championship at the 1964 Summer Olympics, and the Amateur Road World Championship title from Sallanches, France that very same year, an up an coming Eddy Merckx joined the ranks of professional cycling in April of 1965 just a month and a half shy of his reaching the age of twenty. After riding for the Solo-Superia team that year where he notched his first nine wins as a professional, Merckx moved over to Peugeot-BP-Michelin for 1966 where he joined the likes of Tom Simpson (...winner of the 1966 World Road Race Championship), Roger Pingeon (...winner to be of the 1967 Tour de France and the 1969 Vuelta a España), and fellow Belgian Ferdinand "Ferdi" Bracke (...with whom Merckx would pair to win the 2-up team time trial Trofeo Angelo Baracchi in both 1966 and 1967) under the guidance of directeur sportif Gaston Plaud. While Merckx’s most notable wins that year include the GP Cerami and Milan - San Remo, he is seen here riding in the 1966 UCI World Road Race Championships held at the Nürburgring in West Germany.
