1972 was the second year when Bernard Thevenet rode Tour de France. His debut in previous year was a little bit of a surprise performance, when he finished fourth in the general classification.
Unfortunatelyi a crash in the 7th stage prevented him to repeat or even surpass his result from previous year. He lost more than six minutes that day and had to go to the hospital for a health check. Luckily, he was able to continue the race.
The 11th stage led up to the top of Mont Ventoux. Eddy Merckx’s team pushed it very hard, and many rider dropped, including Thévenet. Luis Ocaña attacked several times, but Merckx was able to chase him down every time. Another rider in good shape, Raymond Poulidor was active too, he couldn’t do anything against Merckx either.
Meanwhile a few cyclists, Thévenet among them , re-joined the riders at the head of the race.
Thévenet attacked and won the stage.
Although he lost all the hopes to win the race on that day when he crashed, at the end he finished in 9th place in the general classification.