Iconic Cycling Images: Bernard Thévenet after a crash (Tour de France 1972)

The race in 1972 was Bernard Thévenet's second Tour de France. In his devutant year, in 1971 he finished fifth in the general classification and also won stage. It was a bit of a surprise performance, but in the subsequent year he was considered as one of the favourites. 

The 7th stage of Tour de France 1972 was a day in the Pyrenees with only one big challenge, the Aubisque. Thévenet crashed with Luis Ocaña and went down. 

He was temporarily amnesic. As he began to regain his memory, he looked down at his own Peugeot jersey and wondered whether he might be a cyclist. On recognizing the team car, he exclaimed:

"I'm riding the Tour de France!"

He refused to abandon the race.

Later he won the 11th stage finishing on the top of Mont Ventoux.

PelotonTales is a blog about the history of road cycling races. Focusing rather on the early years of the most iconic cycling races, like Tour de France, Giro d'Italia or Paris-Roubaix, the blog tells the stories behind famous vintage cycling images.  Popular categories of the blog are the Faces from the Peloton or Vintage cycling image of the day. There are also plenty of fascinating fun facts, great stories both about the greatest stars and lesser known cyclists either. Not only from the first part of the 20th century, but also for example from the 1970s, as this post demostrates.

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