13 July 1975 – Eddy Merckx’s last day in yellow jersey
There is a picture from that day, the 13th July in 1975, when Eddy Merckx and Bernard Thévenet riding side by side, and yet to far from each other to be parts of an actual duel between the two biggest favourites of the event. But if you know the story of the 15th stage of Tour de France 1975, you would know that this is The Moment, when Merckx was dethroned.
Obviously, even the great Eddy Merckx couldn’t win every race he completed, but between 1969 and 1974 he absolutely dominated Tour de France. (Skipped only in 1973 to achieve the first ever Vuelta-Giro double.) He was the second cyclist to win the race five times and entered the 1975 edition to make history by winning it for the 6th occasion.
During the first 13 stages everything went as usual. Merckx claimed the yellow jersey after a 16 km long time trial on day 6, and could keep it until the 15th stage.
The actual turning point was the previous stage, leading up to the top of Puy de Dôme. During the climb,
Merckx was punched in the liver by a spectator.
The blow visibly hurt him. He struggled to breathe and lost his usual explosiveness. But he could keep the jersey and welcomed the rest day from the overall leader’s position.
On 13th July the peloton completed the 217 km long 15th stage between Nice and the Pra-Loup in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region.
At the beginning of the last ascent, Merckx launched his attack, as he would be in perfectly healthy form, trying to break Thévenet (the second best rider since Stage 11) psychologically.
But the French cyclist remained calm. He started chasing his rival only after 2 km when Merckx’s cadence began to drop. He became visibly slower and slower. Another 1-2 km went by, and Merckx suddenly lost his rhythm, while Thévenet increased his pace smoothly.
And
without any spectacular attack he just passed Merckx
cca 2 km before the finish.
That is the moment on the said picture. Thévenet just simply went by, while Merckx’s every effort to maintain his lead entirely collapsed.
Bernard Thévenet won the stage, took the yellow jersey and eventually went to win the first of his two Tour de France overall victories. (The second happened in 1977.)
Eddy Merckx was able to finish the stage. Later he gained back something from his previous good form, finished the race in the 2nd position of the general classification. He returned to the race two years later and managed to finish in 6th place.
But after that incident on Puy de Dôme he never won a Tour de France stage again, and the top of Pra-Loup was the last time in his career he crossed a Tour de France finish line while wearing the legendary yellow jersey.