Orcieres-Merlette (or Orcieres Merlette 1850), the ski resort in the Alpes was introduced to Tour de France during this edition. Not only the 11th stage finished here, but also the peloton spent the rest day and the 12stage started at the place..
The 134 km long stage from Grenoble was won by Luis Ocana. He rode 60 km solo and finished 5 min 52 sec ahead of Lucien van Impe and 8 min 42 sec ahead of Eddy Merckx and some other race favourites.
Ocana jumped to the first place in the general classification and everyone was convinced by his upcoming overal 9 July 1971 Luis Ocana won in Orcieres-Merlette victory. But on the 14th stage Ocana crashed and had to give up the race.