1972 Tour de France

The 1972 Tour de France was the 59th edition, held from 1 to 22 July over 20 stages and 3,846 km. Luis Ocaña, who had crashed out of the 1971 race while in yellow and felt he could have won it, was expected to fight Eddy Merckx for the title; he rode strongly for two weeks as Merckx's closest challenger before crashing in the Pyrenees. That left Merckx, the reigning world champion and winner of that year's Giro d'Italia, against Cyrille Guimard, who won four stages but had to abandon after stage 17 while second, 7 min 58 s behind; Guimard was given the combativity award. Merckx won his fourth straight Tour. Twelve teams of eleven riders started, 132 in all.