1975 Tour de France
A punch, a broken cheekbone and the end of Merckx's reign.
The 1975 Tour de France was the 62nd edition, held from 26 June to 20 July over 22 stages and 4,000 km. Eddy Merckx was chasing a sixth victory, which upset French spectators who did not want a Belgian to pass Jacques Anquetil's record of five; on stage 14 a spectator leapt from the crowd and punched him in the kidney. Bernard Thévenet took the lead, and after Merckx crashed and broke a cheekbone he could not fight back; Thévenet won with Merckx second. Belgians took the other prizes, Rik Van Linden the points, Lucien Van Impe the mountains and Marc Demeyer the intermediate sprints, and the Italian Francesco Moser won the first young rider classification. Fourteen teams of ten started.
Quick Facts
- Date
- 26 June – 20 July 1975
- Stages
- 22 + Prologue, including two split stages
- Distance
- 4000
- First
- Bernard Thévenet
- First team
- Peugeot (1975)
- First color
- yellow
- Second
- Eddy Merckx
- Second team
- Molteni (1975)
Facts from the source article.
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