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.
MORE ABOUT BERNARD THÉVENET
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 … Read more
13 July 1972 Bernard Thévenet’s victory on Mont Ventoux
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 … Read more
MORE STARS FROM THE 1970S
25 March 1971 Eddy Merckx wins Omloop Het Volk
You might wonder why an edition of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (or as it was called back in those day, Omloop Het Volk) was held so late in the spring classic calendar. The Omloop is one of the earliest races of the season, it always has been, because the creators of the competition wanted to have … Read more
Bernard Hinault’s epic solo ride in the snow (Liège-Bastogne-Liège 1980)
On the afternoon of the 20th April 1980, while a little girl, called Anita Pethő ( the author of PelotonTales blog) was born in a small town in North-West Hungary, on the other part of Europe, in Belgium, Bernard Hinault delivered one of the most iconic victories in the history of the Monuments. Snow can … Read more
Felice Gimondi – a career in the shadow of Eddy Merckx (?)
Despite his career almost perfectly overlaps the years when Eddy Merckx was active, Felice Gimondi (1942-2019) managed to win pretty much everything. Gimondi is one of the few riders won all the three grand tours at least once, he also gained the rainbow jersey and won three different monuments. Gimondi and the grand tours Felice … Read more
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.
Take a look around the blog. You might find something exciting, fascinating or surprising about your favourites that you didn't know before.
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FACES FROM THE PELOTON
Faces from the peloton: Olimpio Bizzi (1916-1976)
The youngest Giro-stage winner ever, Olimpio Bizzi (1916-1976) was active as professional cyclist between 1936 and 1952. Practically, he was racing in the shadow of the greatest generation of Italian cyclists, including Learco Guerra, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, or Giorenzo Magni Nevertheless, Bizzi had his own successes during his career. Besides some minor one-day race … Read more
Cyrille Van Hauwaert (Faces from the peloton)
Cyrille Van Hauwaert (1883-1974) was one of the most successful Belgian cyclist in the pre -WW1 era. His story began like a folktale. The big and strong Flemish farm boy, who didn’t speak French arrived in the office of the La Française team’s directeur sportif, Pierre Pierrard two days before Paris-Roubaix in 1907. Van Hauwaert … Read more
Faces from the peloton: Victor Fontan (1892-1982)
A cyclist running while carrying his bike on his shoulder. Surely, you’ve seen this vintage cycling image several times. Now it’s time to learn a bit more about the protagonist of the picture. Victor Fontan (1892-1982) in the Faces from the peloton series of PelotonTales blog. A local rider World War I (as did World … Read more
Faces from the peloton: Hippolyte Aucouturier (1876-1944)
Although the idea of a French cyclist in a striped shirt might seem like a little bit of a cliché, sometimes stereotypes are carrying quite much truth in themselves. Just take a look at Hippolyte Aucouturier! One of the most iconic characters from the early days of road cycling races. Nevertheless, he was not only … Read more
Faces from the peloton: Raymond Delisle (1943-2013)
Raymond Delisle was one of those cyclists who was always lurking around the favourites in the most important and/or most iconic Tour de France stages without having significant success. Delisle started his professional career in 1965 in team Peugeot, where he was racing till 1976. (His last year as professional cyclist he spent with the … Read more
CYCLING FUN FACTS
The youngest and the oldest Giro d’Italia stage winners
Olimpio Bizzi is the younges stage winner ever with19 years and 229 days.He won the 8th stage at Giro d’Italia 1936.Mark Cavendish was38 years and 7 daysold, when he crossed the finish line first in the last stage of Giro d’Italia 2023.
Double winners of Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix
Winners of both Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix in the same year: Henri Suter 1923 Romain Gijssels 1932 Gaston Rebry 1934 Raymond Impanis 1954 Fred De Bruyne 1957 Rik Van Looy 1962 Roger De Vlaeminck 1977 Peter van Petegem 2003 Tom Boonen 2005 Fabian Cancellara 2010 Tom Boonen Belgium 2012 Fabian Cancellara 2013 Mathieu van … Read more
The slowest and the fastest Tour de France
You might wonder which Tour de France edition was the slowest and wich. one the fastest. Here you have the answer.The slowest Tour de Francewas the 13th edition, held between 29th June and 27 July in 1919. The 5560 km long route of the race was divided into 15 stages. (And it wasn’t even the … Read more
9 fun facts of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
The first edition (originally called Omloop van Vlaanderen) was held on 25 March 1945. It was only a few weeks after Belgium was liberated by the Aliied Forces, Jerome Stevens, journalist of the Het Volk newspaper, crewtor of the rsce had to have an approval of the British Army to hold the event. Jerome Stevens … Read more
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winners
List of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winners 1945-20231945 Jean Bogaerts (Alcyon–Dunlop)1946 André Pieters (Alcyon–Dunlop)1947 Albert Sercu (Bertin–Wolber)1948 Sylvain Grysolle (Zircon)1949 André Declerck (Bertin–Wolber)1950 André Declerck (Bertin–Wolber)1951 Jean Bogaerts (Starnord–Wolber)1952 Ernest Sterckx (L’Avenir)1953 Ernest Sterckx (L’Avenir)1954 Karel De Baere (Mercier–BP–Hutchinson)1955 Lode Anthonis (L’Avenir)1956 Ernest Sterckx (L’Avenir)1957 Norbert Kerckhove (Faema–Guerra)1958 Joseph Planckaert (Carpano)1959 Seamus Elliott (Helyett–Fynsec)1960 No race1961 … Read more