Bicycles For Peace

In today's Miami Herald with hat tip to daniel:

A gift for Cuba

Belgian cycling legend Eddy Merckx on Monday gave one of his signature bicycles to Fidel Castro, lamenting only that he did not get the chance to present it personally to the Cuban president.

Merckx presented the blue Eddy Merckx brand bike to Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee.

Merckx was winding up a two-day trip to the island, where he donated 1,000 of his bicycles to doctors who work in the easternmost province of Guantanamo, as well as to Cuban cyclists.

''It makes me proud to be the sponsor of a project like this,'' Merckx said. ''Sports can bring nations closer and can be a great learning experience in life.''

Merckx, 61, participated in the last run of the international Vuelta, a Cuba cycling competition that ended on the island Sunday.

Merckx, a five-time winner of the Tour de France, said he was not worried about the future of the sport with the upcoming retirement of Lance Armstrong.

''Cycling will go on and other names will emerge,'' Merckx said.

Wonder how much hospital supplies, food, and medicine Merckx could have donated with the money 1,000 of his bicycles cost? It's not like the Cubans need bikes more than clean bed sheets and medicine, right?

Eddy Merckx...another sucker without a cause.