1977 Tour de France

The 1977 Tour de France was the 64th edition, held from 30 June to 24 July over 22 stages and 4,096 km. Going into stage 16, defending champion Lucien Van Impe, Eddy Merckx and Joop Zoetemelk were all within about a minute of Bernard Thévenet, who had just taken the yellow jersey from Dietrich Thurau. Merckx then faded, Zoetemelk was penalised ten minutes, and Van Impe's bike was damaged when a motorist hit him on Alpe d'Huez, where Hennie Kuiper won the stage but could not break Thévenet, who won the Tour by the smallest margin since 1968. Teams had to pay to ride, unlike at the Giro and Vuelta, so only 100 riders in ten teams started; Thévenet, favourite on a course suited to him, had been penalised for a positive test at Paris-Nice in March.