The Merckx book I referred to probably has more photos of Maerteens that any other rider except Merckx himself, with Roger De Vlaeminck a close third. In the commentary, Merckx speaks of Maerteens in very friendly terms, though I think he does speak of a brief falling out they had, perhaps over the incident you mention. All the photos of Maerteens I recall show him using Campy NR/SR, I'll have to look again to see if any of the photos show a Crane rear derailleur, which should be very easy to distinguish from a Campy. BTW, as far as I know, the only Shimano component called "Crane" was the rear derailleur, which continued the earlier Shimano practice of naming derailleurs after birds, i.e. "Lark", "Eagle", etc. The Crane rear derailleur appeared in the original Dura-Ace gruppo, and continued to be marked "Crane" for several years, while all the other components were marked "Dura-Ace". It is perhaps possible that there was a Crane front derailleur for a while, but I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of one.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
-----Original Message----- From: mr. w.a. manning [mailto:wamanning@earthlink.net] Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 3:32 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR] FLANDRIA INFO NEEDED
as i recall, merckx and maertens werent particularly good friends. in particular after merckx allegedly slowed to allow felice gimondi (i think) a pretty substantial win (worlds perhaps).
also, werent the flandrias that maertens rode equipped with shimano crane components? i recall the belgian coaches commenting that maertens had a good chance to win worlds, and one of the campagnolo family said something to the effect of: "oh no, not that one...he's riding shimano"
walter "it's been a long day and i'm rambling" manning sunny and gorgeous here in detroit today
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Message: 11 From: "Moos, Jerry" <jmoos@urc.com> To: "'MasiGC3V@aol.com'" <MasiGC3V@aol.com>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR] FLANDRIA INFO NEEDED Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 10:32:20 -0400
Carlo, Flandria had a very prominent pro cycling team in the late 60's and the 70's. Eddy Merckx's good friend Freddy Maerteens was for several years the star of the squad, which also featured the prominent rider Micheal Pollentier, who unfortunately was a rather notorious doper. Frandria was probably the best known Belgian-made bike of that era. There are a number of photos of Maerteens, Pollentier and other squad members on Flandrias in Merckx's photo book "The Wonderful World of Cycling". The bikes pictured are Campy NR/SR equipped and seem to be pretty typical pro racing bikes of the time. I'm guessing the team models were 531, though it's possible they were Columbus. I would think a Campy equipped 531 model would be well worth having, though Flandria definitely made some lower end models as well. I think someone stated in a post a few months ago that Galmozzi actually built the Frandria-marked frame for one of the stars of the team. I think I would investigate the bike for sale and pick it up if it were a top model cheap in my size.
Regards,
Jerry Moos