Tour de France 1972

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59th Tour de France 1972 - Final result
Route length 20 stages, 3846.6 km
Tour winner Eddy Merckx 108: 17: 18 h
(35.522 km / h)
Second Felice Gimondi + 10:41 min
Third Raymond Poulidor + 11:34 min
Fourth Lucien Van Impe + 16:45 min
fifth Joop Zoetemelk + 19:09 min
Sixth Mariano Martinez + 21:31 min
seventh Yves Hezard + 21:52 min
Eighth Joaquim Agostinho + 34:16 min
Ninth Bernard Thévenet + 37:11 min
Tenth Edouard Janssens + 42:33 min
Green jersey Eddy Merckx 196 p.
Second Rik Van Linden 135 P.
Third Joop Zoetemelk 132 P.
Mountain scoring Lucien Van Impe 229 P.
Second Eddy Merckx 211 P.
Third Joaquim Agostinho 163 P.
Team evaluation Gan-Mercier

The 59th Tour de France took place from July 1 to 23, 1972 and ran over 3847 km over 20 stages. The Belgian Eddy Merckx and the Spaniard Luis Ocaña Pernía , who had retired from the lead last year, entered the race as favorites. 132 cyclists took part in the tour , 88 of which were classified.

Race course

After winning the prologue, Merckx took over the yellow jersey , which he lost to French stage winner Cyrille Guimard the next day on the first stage . Guimard drove in yellow up to the Pyrenees stage to Luchon , where Merckx took over two minutes from him and took over the overall lead, which he defended until the finish in Paris. On the stages to Briançon and the Col du Galibier as well as in the last individual time trial , Merckx extended its lead with stage wins.

Nevertheless, Guimard showed a good performance in the mountains and, after his two stage victories at the beginning of the tour on the first and fourth stages, also got two victories in the Alps. In Le Revard he even sprinted over Merckx, who had thrown up his arms too early to celebrate his stage win. Guimard was able to prevail against both sprinters and in the mountains and wore the green jersey for a long time , but had to give up on the penultimate stage after a tendonitis in his knee. Merckx, who won the points classification, symbolically gave him his green jersey at the end.

The French Bernard Thévenet won two difficult mountain stages: to Mont Ventoux and to the Ballon d'Alsace . He had had a hard fall on the stage over the Col d'Aubisque in the Pyrenees, but had obviously recovered well.

The Spaniard Luis Ocaña Pernia, who was Merckx's biggest competitor last year , had to retire after a fall on the 15th stage. Ocaña was in fifth place overall at this point, but was weakened by an illness.

Lucien Van Impe was able to defend the win in the mountain classification from the previous year. In the overall standings, Felice Gimondi , winner of 1965 , was second behind Merckx, and third was Frenchman Raymond Poulidor . Merckx won six stages and set Jacques Anquetil's record with his fourth tour win in a row .

The stages

Stages Day Start finish km Stage winner Yellow jersey
prolog July 1 Angers 7.2 ( EZF ) Eddy Merckx Eddy Merckx
1st stage 2nd July Angers - Saint-Brieuc 235.5 Cyrille Guimard Cyrille Guimard
2nd stage 3rd of July Saint-Brieuc - La Baule 206.5 Rik Van Linden Cyrille Guimard
3rd stage (a) July 4th Pornichet - Saint-Jean-de-Monts 161 Ercole Gualazzini Cyrille Guimard
3rd stage (b) July 4th Merlin Plage - Merlin Plage 16.2 ( MZF ) Molteni Cyrille Guimard
4th stage 5th July Merlin Plage - Royan 236 Cyrille Guimard Cyrille Guimard
5th stage (a) July 6th Royan - Bordeaux 133.5 Walter Godefroot Cyrille Guimard
5th stage (b) July 6th Bordeaux - Bordeaux 12.7 (EZF) Eddy Merckx Cyrille Guimard
6th stage 7th of July Bordeaux - Bayonne 205 Leo Duyndam Cyrille Guimard
Rest day
7th stage July 9 Bayonne - Pau 220.5 Yves Hézard Cyrille Guimard
8th stage 10th of July Pau - Luchon 163.5 Eddy Merckx Eddy Merckx
9th stage July 11th Luchon - Colomiers 179 Jozef Huysmans Eddy Merckx
10th stage July 12 Castres - La Grande-Motte 210 Willy Teirlinck Eddy Merckx
11th stage July 13th Carnon-Plage - Mont Ventoux 207 Bernard Thévenet Eddy Merckx
12th stage July 14th Carpentras - Orcières-Merlette 192 Lucien Van Impe Eddy Merckx
13th stage 15th of July Orcières Merlette - Briançon 201 Eddy Merckx Eddy Merckx
14th stage (a) 16th of July Briançon - Col du Galibier 51 Eddy Merckx Eddy Merckx
14th stage (b) 16th of July Valloire - Aix-les-Bains 151 Cyrille Guimard Eddy Merckx
15th stage 17th July Aix-les-Bains - Le Revard 28 Cyrille Guimard Eddy Merckx
Rest day
16th stage July 19 Aix-les-Bains - Pontarlier 198.5 Willy Teirlinck Eddy Merckx
17th stage 20th of July Pontarlier - Ballon d'Alsace 213 Bernard Thévenet Eddy Merckx
18th stage 21 July Belfort - Auxerre 257.5 Marinus Wagtmans Eddy Merckx
19th stage 22nd of July Auxerre - Versailles 230 Joseph Briar Eddy Merckx
20th stage (a) July 23 Versailles - Versailles 42 (EZF) Eddy Merckx Eddy Merckx
20th stage (b) July 23 Versailles - Paris 89 Willy Teirlinck Eddy Merckx

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