1976 Tour de France

The 1976 Tour de France was the 63rd edition, held from 24 June to 18 July over 22 stages and 4,017 km, and was won by the climber Lucien Van Impe in a battle with defending champion Bernard Thévenet and Joop Zoetemelk. Zoetemelk won three high-mountain stages, including Alpe d'Huez and the Puy-de-Dôme, but the race is remembered for Van Impe's young directeur sportif Cyrille Guimard threatening to run him off the road with the team car unless he attacked; Van Impe attacked and won. The revelation was Freddy Maertens, who in his first Tour won eight stages and the points classification and led for ten days. Eddy Merckx was absent through injury and Thévenet quit on stage 19 with the result already clear. Giancarlo Bellini won the mountains by a single point from Van Impe and Enrique Martínez Heredia the young rider prize; thirteen teams of ten started.