Oops! Eddy's in Trouble...

[CaptStash]

Just read the cool Sports Illustrated article, then this popped-up on my news feed: Eddy Merckx in Legal Trouble

CaptStash....

[ultraman6970]

Like give discounts was like out of the ordinary.

[eBAUMANN]

a $16k contract...yea, definitely worth dragging into court.

[bobswire]

They better go after Colnago too for bribing GOD via the Pope. I've heard the gates of heaven were made of gold so why not a gold bicycle.
http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspo...n-paul-ii.html

[GoatLeg]

That bike is so ****ing cool

[numbskull]

Ha! Imagine climbing some hill in Lazio and getting passed by the pope on a golden Colnago. Good luck getting your cycling buddies to believe that one.

[josephr]

is it just me, or is it incredibly annoying that we're talking about a $16k contract/free bike from 10 years ago for a politician that was indicted 4 years ago????

[carpediemracing]

I know that it is explicitly against policy for a police officer to accept any free anything, whether it's a bottle of water or a discount on a coffee or what. This is meant to keep things above board.

Having said that I saw three people give a bottle of ice cold water in about 5 minutes to a police officer doing crowd/traffic control this past weekend during the town's Memorial Day parade. In a situation like that it's realistically better to grin and accept, one of those judgment call situations.

When I had a shop I routinely gave discounts to law enforcement because I felt it was the right thing to do. Some bike winter gloves are great because they fit in trigger guards, FYI. One day one of the officers gave me a window sticker for my car. I thought he got them for free, all the time. He admitted later he gets two per year, one for each of his cars. However he doesn't need one on his car (he has a badge) and he said his wife was okay without one also. I can't tell you for sure if it had any effect but I got pulled over twice and only got (very strict) verbal warnings. The car I owned had on it Freemason stuff on the back, from the previous owner, and I think that probably helped also.

Can't comment on the Merckx case but a discount on a bike isn't unusual and if there's a zillionaire (relatively speaking) and he gives a bike to a cop...

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by carpediemracing

I know that it is explicitly against policy for a police officer to accept any free anything, whether it's a bottle of water or a discount on a coffee or what.

There is a donut exemption....

[choke]

Originally Posted by eBAUMANN

a $16k contract...yea, definitely worth dragging into court.

A different report (link) said that the contract was for 46 bikes - that works out to 326 Euros per bike, which doesn't make much sense IMO.

[bikingshearer]

I know nothing about the ins and outs of Eddy's alleged skulduggery, but it seems that Belgium has some, shall we say, interesting laws. I recall that Freddy Maertens got into trouble for non-payment of taxes. It seems he was under contract to receive payment for something or other (I believe it was for his cycling services in the twilight of his career) and was stiffed. If I remember correctly, under Belgian law, he still owed the taxes because they consider that you received the money called for in whatever contract he had regardless of whether he actually got paid. In any event, I distinctly recall thinking at the time that the Belgian law then in question was downright Kafka-esque.

For that reason, color me not at all surprised that there is some bizarre Belgian law being applied by some zealous prosecutor for some bizarre and potentially unsavory reason. Of course, I am speaking from the unique perspective of having absolutely no real understanding or solid info on any of this.

[fignon's barber]

Isn't Belgium the country that is letting ISIS run free? I think they have bigger things to worry about.

[bikingshearer]

I don't know about letting ISIS run free, but they recently went almost two without their parliament being unable to select a Prime Minister or a government. Nobody cared and precious few even noticed.