20 JULY 1970
MERCKX, CHAMPION AGAIN
J.B. Wadley in Paris
Eddy Merckx, of Belgium, yesterday won the Tour de France for the second year in succession and joined the distinguished company of Fausto Coppi, of Italy, and Jacques Anquetil, of France, who are the only other men to have won the Tour and the Giro d’Italia in the same year.
Merckx finished the Tour as he began it 23 days ago – with a time-trial victory. Yesterday’s ride, however, was much more difficult than the five-mile sprint at Limoges. The course between Versailles and the Stade Municipale, on the east side of Paris, covered more than 33 miles of difficult country.
The Belgian won by almost two minutes from Luis Ocaña, of Spain, with Gösta Pettersson, of Sweden, another half a minute behind in third place. It brought Merckx his eighth stage success, equalling the 40-year-old record of Charles Pélissier, of France.
Merckx’s formula for overall victory was similar to that of 1969 – aggression all the way, although he had to stay on defence for two days in the Pyrenees after a bout of stomach trouble.
Last year, Merckx’s nearest challengers were the experienced Pingeon and Poulidor, of France. This time, the chief opposition came from two new professionals, Joop Zoetemelk, of Holland, and Pettersson (Sweden). Walter Godefroot, also of Belgium, won the points classification and led his Salvarani colleagues to team victory. Merckx was again the overall winner of the Grand Prix de la Montagne competition.
9 JULY 1971
OCAÑA RACES NINE MINUTES AHEAD OF MERCKX
J.B. Wadley in Orcières-Merlette
After two days probing the defences of the ‘unbeatable’ Eddy Merckx, Luis Ocaña yesterday launched a devastating attack to which the Belgian star had no answer. The Spanish rider arrived under a scorching sun at this 5,500-feet winter sports station nearly nine minutes ahead of Merckx, who led in a group of ten, who included the overnight leader Joop Zoetemelk (Holland). In between the triumphant winner and the beaten ten, little Lucien van Impe (Belgium) rode with great tenacity to take second place in the stage.
Although he had been riding practically on his own over mountainous country for more than 70 miles, Ocaña was remarkably fresh on completing his great ride. Now holding the race lead by a comfortable margin and with no racing today, the 26-year-old Spaniard, who has lived in France for 16 years, has a great chance of winning the Tour.
The Portuguese rider Joaquim Agostinho started the day’s remarkable story by attacking soon after the start of the 83-mile stage from Grenoble and reaching the summit of the 3,000-foot Cote de Laffey 15 seconds ahead of Ocaña, Zoetemelk and Van Impe, with Merckx already two minutes in arrears. The four riders, with Ocaña doing most of the pacemaking, continued to gain over the Belgian, whose efforts to whip up the pace were hindered by three of Ocaña’s team colleagues. This climb was quickly followed by a ‘hot spot’ sprint which Ocaña won.
With severe mountain climbing ahead it seemed likely the four would keep together, but Ocaña meant business in a big way and forged ahead at the foot of the difficult 5,000-foot Col du Noyer. With a tremendous display of climbing, fearless descending and strong time-trialling on the few flat sections, Ocaña rapidly drew away from his companions.
It was not surprising to find all rival riders in the Merckx group leaving the pacemaking entirely to him. Merckx accepted his lot with dignity and courage and made new friends by the way he took his defeat. Even when not at his best Merckx is still a great rider. After doing all the work chasing after Ocaña he was still strong enough to win the mountain sprint for third place.
13 JULY 1971
MERCKX TAKES OVER AS OCAÑA CRASHES
J.B. Wadley in Luchon
Even in Spain, yesterday’s Pyrenees stage victory by Jose-Manuel Fuente will pass almost unnoticed against the tragedy of Luis Ocaña, knocked out of the Tour when wearing the yellow jersey and with every chance of winning in Paris on Sunday. As the race crossed the frontier for a 12½-mile visit to Spain, where the name Ocaña was painted in huge letters on the road, the national hero was being transported by helicopter ambulance to St Gaudens, unconscious and suffering from chest injuries.
It was a distressing end to a tremendous battle which Ocaña had been fighting with Eddy Merckx for the last six days. Both fell on the dangerous descent of the 4,000-foot Col de Mente during a blinding rain storm. Merckx was quickly on his feet and back in the race, but Ocaña was still lying on the road when he was run into by Joop Zoetemelk (Holland), who was unable to control his cycle because of a puncture.
Almost from the start of the 134-mile stage from Revel, Merckx had attacked Ocaña, on the flat, up hill and down, but each time the Spaniard replied confidently. The ferocity of the duel split the pack to pieces, and of the leading challengers only Zoetemelk and Lucien van Impe (Belgium) were finding enough to stay with them.
Among those who failed was Gösta Pettersson (Sweden), third last year, but obviously feeling the effects of his winning Tour of Italy ride earlier this season. He retired before the end-of-stage climbs began, and was in the ambulance called for the unfortunate Ocaña.
While groups of riders were handicapped on the dangerous Col de Mente descent – under rushing flood-water in many places – Fuente, nearly two hours down on overall time, was able to pick a path and increase his lead. After being first to the top of all four cols, the Spaniard arrived at Luchon more than seven minutes ahead of the next party, from which Merckx won the sprint for second place.
Merckx, who overnight was nearly seven and a half minutes behind Ocaña, automatically takes over the yellow jersey. ‘I hoped to win it from Luis during the next three days, but I am distressed it should have happened like this,’ he said, adding that he would not wear the jersey as a mark of respect to Ocaña.
23 JULY 1973
OCAÑA COMPLETES OVERALL VICTORY IN FINE STYLE
David Saunders in Paris
Luis Ocaña became only the second Spanish rider to win the Tour de France when he finished the 20th and final stage of this 60th Tour at Vincennes, on the outskirts of Paris, yesterday, with the main field. Federico Bahamontes, the ‘Eagle of Toledo’, was the first in 1959.
Earlier in the day Ocaña had won the ten-mile time trail in Versailles, again crushing the opposition to record his fifth victory of the event. He covered the course at an average speed of just over 28 mph. The French champion, Bernard Thevenet, was second, but, even in the short distance, he lost 25 seconds to Ocaña, who again won on the new British-built Titanium racing machine he has ridden for the last ten days. Thevenet went one better on the afternoon’s 55-mile final run, winning the stage with a tremendous burst of power just ahead of the main pack, to the roars of appreciation from the packed stands in the Stade Municipale.
Britain’s Barry Hoban, who produced a magnificent sprint on Saturday to win the 19th stage into Versailles, his second stage victory of the Tour, was not well placed as the bunch swept into the stadium, led by Thevenet. Even so, he took 11th place. Hoban, though, will no doubt be satisfied with his performance, which helped his Gan-Mercier team to win the team points section of the race, while Ocaña’s Bic team were the overall winners. Hoban finished fifth in the points classification and second in the ‘hot spot’ sprint, and has earned himself more than £1,000 for his fine riding – a reasonable share for one man from the total prize list of £110,000.
The amount has increased this year, but even so the riders failed to race for it with any real degree of animation, and apart from Ocaña, or perhaps because of him, it was a dull Tour. This can easily be seen from the average speed over the three weeks of racing, just over 21 mph, the lowest recorded in the event since 1952. One must say that the riders were hardly to blame.
The Belgian champion, Frans Verbeeck, put the point over succinctly enough just before he crashed and retired last week, when he said: ‘We are treated like animals in a circus, and I shall never ride the Tour again under these circumstances.’
He was referring to the many miles of travelling riders had to do in order to reach their hotels after some stages ended, and also to travel to the start the next day. This all necessitated teams having to be on the move sometimes at six in the morning. A good example was last Saturday’s stage when the field had to travel by train from Clermont Ferrand to the start of Bourges, a distance of 120 miles.
30 JUNE 1974
HARD-WORKING HOBAN GAINS SPRINT BONUS
David Saunders in Plymouth
Dutchman Henk Poppe won the second stage of the Tour de France at Plymouth yesterday on the first occasion of the event in Britain, where over 30,000 packed the roadsides to witness the world’s best riders in action for just over 100 miles. The race covered 14 laps of a seven-mile circuit around the Plympton by-pass and the early morning rain, which must have kept many away, was replaced by warm sunshine for the stage.
The man everyone wanted to win was, of course, Barry Hoban, who rides for the French Gan-Mercier team, but although he was well in evidence throughout, victory eluded him on this important day. Hoban worked hard a number of times, no doubt spurred on by the large crowd, and he gained eight seconds’ bonus time from winning one of the day’s two ‘hot spot’ sprints and coming third in the other. This helped him to move up to ninth place, overall while Dutchman Gerben Karstens, who was also prominent in the sprints, gained even more through taking fourth place in the mass sprint for the finish, contested by 128 riders, and this moves him to a third place overall.
The race leader, Joseph Bruyère, of Belgium, a team colleague of the great Eddy Merckx, was never far from the front, and so Britain’s first sight of the most famous sporting event in the world proved a resounding success.
22 JULY 1974
MERCKX TRIUMPHS TO EQUAL 1964 RECORD
David Saunders in Paris
Eddy Merckx, of Belgium, won the Tour de France, which ended in Paris yesterday, for the fifth time, and equalled the record set by Frenchman Jacques Anquetil in 1964. Merckx was the eventual winner of the 22nd and final stage of 91 miles from Orléans to the stadium at Vincennes, on the outskirts of the French capital, although he finished second in the big bunch sprint behind Patrick Sercu. There was a protest by another Belgian, Gustave van Roesbroeck, that Sercu had switched his line in the final 50 metres, which he certainly did, and Sercu was put down to third place for the infringement, which gave Merckx another victory.
Merckx had tried desperately to create a record of nine stage wins, having equalled the present record of eight wins back in 1970. But the odds proved too much for him after he won the first section of Saturday’s stage of 73 miles from Vouvray to Orléans. The Belgian was hoping to win the time trial over 25 miles at Orléans later that day, but his chances were ruined by ten seconds, which was the margin between him and a young Belgian rival, Michel Pollentier.
Pollentier won the stage but – more important – veteran Raymond Poulidor, who took fifth place on the time trial, moved to second overall position as a result of a much better time than the Spanish champion, Vicente López-Carril. It left only one second separating the two men at the start of the final day and with bonuses to be won at the two ‘hot spot’ sprints on the stage, the Gan-Mercier team not only protected Poulidor but got him a second place in one. This meant he ended with a five-second advantage over the Spaniard while his British team colleague Barry Hoban carried off the overall prize in the ‘hot spot’ section. That, plus his stage victory, was a fine achievement by the British rider.
5 JULY 1975
HOBAN’S EIGHTH STAGE
David Saunders in Bordeaux
Britain’s Barry Hoban won the eighth stage of the Tour de France yesterday, 84 miles from Angoulême to Bordeaux, with a superbly timed effort, taking victory by about half a wheel in a big group finish. This was Hoban at this best, using his vast experience to deliver a telling blow to the hopes of the other big-time sprinters who contested the finish.
‘Nobody knows this track better than I do,’ said a delighted Hoban to me after the finish. He is certainly right there because he won in Bordeaux in 1970 and it was back in 1964 when he finished second in a stage here in his first Tour de France. But now he is riding his tenth Tour and yesterday was his eighth stage victory, executed with all the dash and fire of a man much less than Hoban’s 35 years of age.
Once the field came on to the track I thought Hoban had no chance. Boxed in and lying about 14th as they swept over the line with a full lap to cover it seemed too much to ask of him. Italian Francesco Moser broke clear in the back straight, followed by Belgian Walter Godefroot, the latter with a torn jersey and a nasty wound on his right arm after a crash ten miles from the start.
Gradually the field closed on them and as they came out of the final bend the big group were together. Suddenly Hoban unleashed his finishing burst and reached the front exactly as the line came up. ‘I knew Moser had gone too soon,’ Hoban told me. ‘This is a big track, 500 metres, and there’s still nearly 200 metres left when you come round the last bend. Once we were together I knew I had a chance.’
12 JULY 1975
MERCKX ATTACKED BY SPECTATOR ON CLIMB
David Saunders in Clermont Ferrand
Eddy Merckx, Belgian’s star rider, claimed he had been punched in the stomach by a spectator during the last 200 yards of the Puy de Dôme mountain climb on yesterday’s 14th stage of the Tour de France. Merckx crossed the line and collapsed against a crush barrier, vomiting and racked with spasms, clinging to the barrier and supported by newsmen.
Police said that Merckx recognised his attacker as he rode back down the mountain. He called a policeman and had the youth’s name and address taken, and would start legal proceedings against the youth, whose name was not disclosed.
Although Belgium’s Lucien van Impe won yesterday’s stage of the Tour, the main interest centred on the man who finished second on this 108-mile ride from Aurillac to the summit of the Puy de Dôme – Bernard Thevenet, of France. Thevenet lost 15 seconds to Van Impe, but gained 34 priceless seconds on race leader Merckx, who finished third.
21 JULY 1975
THEVENET HOLDS OFF AMAZING MERCKX
David Saunders in Paris
Bernard Thevenet became the first Frenchman to win the Tour de France for eight years when he finished with the main field at the end of the 22nd and final stage on the Champs-Elysées yesterday, watched by an enormous crowd. Estimated at around 250,000, they jammed the famous thoroughfare for the whole of its near-four-mile stretch, which the race had to cover 27 times to total 102 miles. It was a superb spectacle. Belgian Walter Godefroot won the sprint to take the stage victory, with Britain’s Barry Hoban fifth after there had been many attacks and brave lone efforts during the stage.
This has been a very hard Tour, and Eddy Merckx, although second overall, has come out of it with as much publicity and acclaim as if he had won. His decision to stay in the race against doctor’s orders has made him a hero all over Europe.
Usually Merckx has all the luck, but this year it deserted him just when he needed it most. The crash when he broke his cheekbone was the last straw, but I am sure he would have tried to regain the lead more decisively than he did. Even though in pain, he made the occasional assault but it was no use – not even yesterday when the crowd was electrified by his sudden bursts of speed. But the race leader was never far behind.
One cannot end without some words of praise for Thevenet, who throughout the race has ridden with fire and determination. Perhaps a little fortunate to find Merckx not at his best, Thevenet is a worthy winner and his ability to fight and his courage cannot be questioned.
Britain’s Hoban, although finishing 68th overall, again made his mark on the race. A stage win at Bordeaux, second in the ‘hot spot’ sprint section and fifth in the points was another good ride. His French Gan-Mercier squad took the overall team victory, Hoban’s contribution in the early days being an aid to their success. The 2,500-mile race was much more mountainous than usual and accounted for 54 men failing to finish the course.
24 JULY 1977
MONEY-SPINNING CYCLE WHEELS IN TOUR DE FRANCE
Anne Sington in Paris
The Tour de France, one of Europe’s most famous sporting events, started life as cycling with the addition of some advertising; today it has transformed itself into advertising with the addition of some cycling. Advertising revenue from the 100 vehicles in the ‘advertisement caravan’ which follows the Tour competitors has been estimated at £400,000. But this is peanuts compared with the investment made by the 18 big companies who invest in prizes.
This year they have contributed over £1.3 million for motives in which philanthropy vies with enlightened self-interest – and loses. The Miko ice-cream company, which offers the daily prize for the leading competitor (giving the right to wear the famous yellow singlet), makes an outright contribution of £700,000 to the organisers of the Tour – the popular newspaper Le Parisien Libéré and the sports paper L’Equipe. In return, the contract gives it the right to have its trade name appear in sports news photographs in each of the publications three times during the three-week Tour. These are taken on the podium, as the victor shrugs himself into the prized garment at the end of each day’s lap.
Miko’s name is blazoned fore and aft on the singlet of the winner, who is naturally the centre of attention for 13 million Frenchmen who line the route to cheer on their heroes. The same people then go home and watch it all over again on television – and there’s no prize for guessing what the camera is focusing on either. M Ginez, Miko’s director of publicity, estimates that each year’s Tour gives him up to three hours of television time at moments when viewers are not dashing to kitchen or bathroom. He still hasn’t finished working out what this is worth in terms of 15 or 30-second publicity shots.
Companies who finance a team, as opposed to merely buying advertising space on the backs of those travelling salesmen, are operating on the Tom Tiddler’s ground between sport and big business, and the gold and silver picked up indicate that the latter has the upper hand. Raymond Poulidor, for instance, who rides in the team sponsored by Miko and Mercier bicycles, earns nearly £1,200 a month the year round, and may pocket a further £50,000 or more in fees for appearing in events for which his Tour de France name has made him a draw.
Big money also changes hands over the exact route followed by the race. Local townships queue up for the privilege of spending a minimum of £14,000 to lure the Tour their way. Local business gets most of this back in hotel and restaurant bills and related spending, but the real prize for many places is that the Tour puts them on the map. In 1971, a new ski resort, Orcières-Merlette, went into debt to raise the money to play host for one night. The gamble paid off. It was there that one of the most dramatic incidents of any Tour took place, when Luis Ocaña deprived the champion Eddy Merckx of the yellow singlet. Suddenly, the name of Orcières-Merlette was on the lips of cycling enthusiasts throughout Europe. If the point of advertising is not that it is whitest or fastest or yummiest but just that you remember its name, then the Tour de France is the perfect medium.
25 JULY 1977
TESTS OVERSHADOW THEVENET’S VICTORY
David Saunders in Paris
Bernard Thevenet, of France, won the 1977 Tour de France yesterday when he finished in the main field after one of his rival compatriots, Alain Meslet, won the second section of the 22nd stage, a 56-mile road race around the Champs-Elysées.
But overshadowing everything was the news on Saturday that Joop Zoetemelk had been found guilty of taking stimulants, and yesterday that four more riders – the Spaniards Menendez, Mendes and Ocaña, and Portugal’s Agostinho – were also named as having been found positive through the new system of drug testing. Professor de Backere, of Ghent University, experimented all last winter and it is believed he has now perfected the tracing of pemoline, an amphetamine-based drug, which some riders thought could not be detected.
Zoetemelk, who has always been a correct and courageous rider, maintained his innocence throughout and said he had no idea how the drug came to be in his sample, taken after he won the stage at Avoriaz a week yesterday. The Dutchman, who has been second in the Tour three times, said: ‘I tried to win into Versailles on Saturday but still provided a sample for second place, just to prove I was not taking anything. I have been tested over 200 times in my professional career and I have no idea how it could have been given to me.’
At least the rumours that were spreading fast within the Tour entourage are at an end, though there are those who say that others are still to be named. Each rider involved receives a ten-minute penalty, is fined £250 and is suspended for a month. The four announced yesterday made little difference to the top overall placings, but Zoetemelk dropped from fifth to eighth as a result of the penalty.
15 JULY 1978
NINETY-NINE ANGRY RIDERS GO ‘ON STRIKE’
J.B. Wadley in Toulouse
Everybody who finished Tuesday’s eleventh stage of the Tour de France was a hero. How could twelve- or ten- or even nine-stone men force 18 lb of bicycle over the snowflaked 6,900-foot Col du Tourmalet, descend at 50 mph and finish by sprinting the last cruel steps of a Pyrenean Devil’s Staircase?
Of all this year’s Tour heroes none can compare with Bernard Hinault who, in Tricolore, Champion of France, colours, got within one minute of taking over the race lead. On form, Hinault, from Brittany, should be wearing the yellow jersey on Friday – Bastille Day. An adventure story writer could not do better.
Millions saw the battle of the Pla d’Adet on television and thousands lined the streets of Valence d’Agen yesterday to give the riders a hero’s welcome at the end of the morning 92-mile half-stage from Tarbes. They knew from their transistors that the race was one and a half hours behind schedule, but appreciating the punishment taken overnight on the mountains had no complaints. Indeed, the finishing-line spectators thought, the slower the stage the faster the finish.
But instead of a massive sprint we saw the unprecedented spectacle of 99 riders dismounting 50 yards from the finishing line, arguing with officials for several minutes and then pushing their bicycles to the line. The ‘Giants of the Road’, tamers of mighty mountains and headwind gales, were protesting because they had to get up a bit earlier than usual. One of the ringleaders of the protest, it is alleged, was Hinault, who with some difficulty tried to explain to the puzzled crowd what it was all about.
The facts are these. In the early days the Tour itinerary was a continuous line circling the country representing as many as 3,600 miles. Since the War the International Cycling Union have restricted the length to 2,500 miles. Rather than make it a smaller but continuous ‘circle’ the organisers prefer to keep it large to neutralise certain sections.
A Tour rider’s lot is not an easy one and grumbles were to be expected, but I do not believe they, and least of all Hinault – making his debut in the great race – would have stopped the show on their own volition. Whatever the cause the effects cannot be good for the Tour image. The organisers announced that the morning stage was cancelled and that the prize money would be given to a local charity.
17 JULY 1978
TOUR DE FRANCE LEADER IS DISQUALIFIED
Michel Pollentier, of Belgium, was disqualified from the Tour de France yesterday, accused of cheating on the medical doping test after he had won the 16th stage, a 150-mile mountain haul from St Etienne to Alpe d’Huez. He had also taken the overall lead. Race officials said Pollentier had been caught with a test tube containing an old urine sample taped under his armpit and had tried to substitute that for the sample taken after the race. It was announced that Pollentier had been relegated to last position in the stage, had suffered a further ten-minute penalty and had been fined 5,000 Swiss francs. But later it was announced that he had been disqualified from the race.
24 JULY 1978
HINAULT TRIUMPHS AT FIRST ATTEMPT
J.B. Wadley in Paris
A choir of a million voices, 200,000 of them on the Champs Elysées-Place de la Concorde finishing circuit, chanted ‘Ee-no, Ee-no’ yesterday as Bernard Hinault in the yellow jersey rode the last 100 miles of his victorious Tour de France.
Hinault – competing in his first Tour – is a member of the Club Olympique Briochin, the Brittany club who the late Tom Simpson joined when he began his Continental career 20 years ago. From his first races Hinault was hailed as a rider of the Simpson type, always stirring up the pace, afraid of nobody, determined to smash any ‘Mafia ganging-up’, winning races on his own, in sprints, time trials and up steep hills.
Yesterday, to mark the finish of the 65th Tour de France, 20 previous winners joined in the celebrations on the Champs-Elysées. Inevitably comparisons were made between some of them and Hinault. Whom does he resemble most?
Louison Bobet? Very much in his ‘completeness’. Bobet, however, had five years of failure before he finally scored the first of his three successive victories, whereas Hinault won at his first attempt.
Eddy Merckx? Not by 600 miles. I do not mean that Hinault has not Merckx’s basic class. But whereas young Merckx was brought up in the hurly-burly of international racing, on three Belgian indoor tracks, Hinault is still practically a track novice.
Jacques Anquetil? Though different in build and riding style, Hinault has much in common with the master time-triallist from Normandy, who while not an ace climber was never decisively dropped by a direct rival in the mountains.
23 JULY 1979
HINAULT HOME IN STORY-BOOK FINISH
J.B. Wadley in Paris
An enormous crowd watched a story-book ending to an outstanding Tour de France yesterday on the Champs-Elysées, when Bernard Hinault and Joop Zoetemelk, who for nearly a month had dominated the race, arrived together well clear of the field to contest the final sprint.
The result was logical. First: Hinault. Second: Zoetemelk – with the rest of the field well beaten as they had been throughout 2,300 miles of exceptionally hard competition. Zoetemelk, 3m 7s down overall on starting the final 113-mile stage, made a last desperate attempt on one of the many hills in the Chevreuse Valley. Hinault was quickly on his wheel.
As ‘defender’, Hinault could have left the pace-making to Zoetemelk, in which case the pair would soon have been caught. But Hinault, who overnight had scored his sixth stage victory, was determined to round off his splendid Tour by winning on the Champs-Elysées. He therefore continued to ‘work’ with Zoetemelk, each doing about 200 metres of pace-making before swinging out to let the other through.
It was a splendid lesson to amateur racing cyclists. There are no greater rivals in the sport than Hinault and Zoetemelk, but now they were briefly allies, resisting the efforts of the pursuing field. For the 200,000 crowd lining the four-mile Champs-Elysées-Place de la Concorde circuit, which had to be covered six times, it was too good to be true. Often the yellow jersey is hidden in a bunch of 100. Yesterday he was out in front with his valiant challenger for nearly an hour on the most famous circuit in the world.
On the last home straight up the Champs-Elysées the pact ended. Hinault and Zoetemelk were enemies again. Zoetemelk did his best, but Hinault was over the line first, winner of his seventh stage, overall winner on time for the second successive year, winner on points and leader of the winning team. Poor Zoetemelk was second for the fifth time.
Two minutes later British supporters had the unexpected thrill of seeing Paul Sherwen finish third in the 50-up big bunch sprint. Sherwen’s overall place was low but he arrived in Paris in much better form than when he started.