The 1975 Tour de France was the 62nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 26 June and 20 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of . Eddy Merckx was attempting to win his sixth Tour de France, but became a victim of violence. Many French spectators were upset that a Belgian might beat the record of five wins set by France's Jacques Anquetil. During stage 14 a spectator leapt from the crowd and punched Merckx in the kidney. Frenchman Bernard Thévenet took over the lead. After Merckx subsequently fell and broke his cheekbone, he was unable to challenge Thévenet, who went on to win the Tour with Merckx second.
Belgian cyclists were successful in the secondary classifications: the points classification was won by Rik Van Linden, mountains classification by Lucien Van Impe, and the intermediate sprints classification by Marc Demeyer. For the first time, there was young rider classification, won by Italian Francesco Moser.
Teams
There were 14 teams participating, with 10 cyclists each.
The teams entering the race were:
Pre-race favourites
Eddy Merckx, who had won all five times that he participated, was again the big favourite. Merckx' first part of the season had been going well, winning Milan–San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. If Merckx would win again, he would beat Jacques Anquetil and become the first cyclist to win the Tour six times. Merckx did not care about that record: "The idea doesn't interest me very much because then people would want me to go for a seventh and then an eighth".
A few months before the race, Merckx was unsure if he would start the Tour. His race schedule had been very busy, and he thought riding the Giro and the Tour in the same year would not work. Merckx preferred to ride the Tour, but his Italian team preferred the Giro.
Bernard Thévenet contracted shingles during the 1975 Vuelta a España, but recovered and won the Dauphiné Liberé.
Route and stages
The 1975 Tour de France started on 26 June, and had two rest days, the first in Auch the second after the finish on the Puy de Dôme, during which the cyclists were transferred to Nice. The 1975 Tour de France did not include a team time trial for the first time since 1962. After 1975, it would be included again every year until 1995. The final stage had become more popular over the years, and the Tour organisers therefore moved the finish line from the Vélodrome de Vincennes to the more prestigious Champs-Élysées. The highest point of elevation in the race was at the summit of the Col d'Izoard mountain pass on stage 16.
+ Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner P 26 June Charleroi (Belgium) Individual time trial 1a 27 June Charleroi (Belgium) to Molenbeek (Belgium) Plain stage 1b Molenbeek (Belgium) to Roubaix Plain stage 2 28 June Roubaix to Amiens Plain stage 3 29 June Amiens to Versailles Plain stage 4 30 June Versailles to Le Mans Plain stage 5 1 July Sablé-sur-Sarthe to Merlin-Plage Plain stage 6 2 July Merlin-Plage Individual time trial 7 3 July Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie to Angoulême Plain stage 8 4 July Angoulême to Bordeaux Plain stage 9a 5 July Langon to Fleurance Plain stage 9b Fleurance to Auch Individual time trial 6 July Auch Rest day 10 7 July Auch to Pau Stage with mountain(s) 11 8 July Pau to Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d'Adet Stage with mountain(s) 12 9 July Tarbes to Albi Plain stage 13 10 July Albi to Super-Lioran Stage with mountain(s) 14 11 July Aurillac to Puy de Dôme Stage with mountain(s) 12 July Nice Rest day 15 13 July Nice to Pra-Loup Stage with mountain(s) 16 14 July Barcelonnette to Serre Chevalier Stage with mountain(s) 17 15 July Valloire to Morzine Avoriaz Stage with mountain(s) 18 16 July Morzine to Châtel Individual time trial 19 17 July Thonon-les-Bains to Chalon-sur-Saône Stage with mountain(s) 20 18 July Pouilly-en-Auxois to Melun Plain stage 21 19 July Melun to Senlis Plain stage 22 20 July Paris to Paris (Champs-Élysées) Plain stage Total
Race overview
Francesco Moser won the prologue, and kept the lead until the first time trial. Merckx started the Tour aggressively, which caused the peloton to split in two groups in the first stage. Eddy Merckx and Moser were in the first group, and won a minute on most of their competitors. In the second part of the first stage, the field split again, but this time Thevenet and Poulidor were also in the first group. In stage six, a time trial, Merckx beat Moser and became the leader.
The first climbing was done in the tenth stage, but the favourites stayed together, and the general classification was not changed. The major Pyrenéan mountains were scheduled in stage eleven. In that stage, Bernard Thévenet and Joop Zoetemelk escaped together, while Merckx could not follow them. Zoetemelk won, with Merckx almost one minute behind. From this point on only Thevenet, Lucien Van Impe, Zoetemelk and Merckx had a realistic chance of winning the maillot jaune as the other favourites finished much later, and lost their hopes of winning the Tour. The fourteenth stage had its finish on top of the Puy de Dôme. When Merckx was about to catch Joop Zoetemelk, a French spectator punched Merckx in the stomach. Zoetemelk did not capitalize and gain time on Merckx because of this as they crossed the finish line with the same time 0:49 behind stage winner Van Impe, who did win some time over the rest of the field together with Thevenet who came in a few seconds behind Van Impe.
After the rest day, the fifteenth stage would end in Pra-Loup. Merckx was still the leader, and escaped from the rest. But on the final climb, Merckx was out of energy, and Thévenet was able to reach Merckx two kilometres from the finish, leave Merckx behind, and win with a margin of two minutes. Trying to follow Gimondi on a downhill, the team car of Bianchi went off the road, falling 150 meters down a cliff. The mechanic separated from the car, landed in a tree and survived. Thévenet was the new leader, and improved his margin in the sixteenth stage by winning with more than two minutes on Merckx.
While riding to the start of the seventeenth stage, Merckx collided with Ole Ritter, and broke a cheekbone. Merckx' broken cheekbone gave him problems with eating, and the Tour doctor gave him the advice to abandon the race. Merckx decided to stay in the race, because of the prize money for his teammates that his second place in the general classification and other classifications would earn them.
Doping After every stage in the 1975 Tour de France, the leader of the race, the winner of the stage and the runner-up, and two random cyclists were checked. In total, 110 tests were done, of which three returned positive, Régis Delépine (after stage 5), Felice Gimondi and José-Luis Viejo (both after stage 15). All three were fined with 1000 Swiss Francs, received one month suspended sentence, were set back to the last place in the stage where they tested positive, and received 10 minutes penalty time in the general classification. This meant that Gimondi, who initially finished the Tour in fifth place, was set back to the sixth place.
Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were several classifications in the 1975 Tour de France, four of them awarding jerseys to their leaders. The most important was the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey; the winner of this classification is considered the winner of the Tour. Time bonuses for stage winners were removed for the 1975 Tour.
Additionally, there was a points classification, where cyclists got points for finishing among the best in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a green jersey.
There was also a mountains classification. The organisation had categorised some climbs as either first, second, third, or fourth-category; points for this classification were won by the first cyclists that reached the top of these climbs first, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification. 1975 was the first year that the leader of the classification wore a white jersey with red polka dots.
The combination classification was removed, and the young rider classification was added. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only neo-professionals were eligible, and the leader wore a white jersey.
The fifth individual classification was the intermediate sprints classification. This classification had similar rules as the points classification, but only points were awarded on intermediate sprints. In 1975, this classification had no associated jersey.
For the team classification, the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added; the leading team was the team with the lowest total time. The riders in the team that led this classification were identified by yellow caps. There was also a team points classification. Cyclists received points according to their finishing position on each stage, with the first rider receiving one point. The first three finishers of each team had their points combined, and the team with the fewest points led the classification. The riders of the team leading this classification wore green caps.
In addition, there was a combativity award, in which a jury composed of journalists gave points after certain stages to the cyclist they considered most combative. The split stages each had a combined winner. At the conclusion of the Tour, Eddy Merckx won the overall super-combativity award, also decided by journalists. The Souvenir Henri Desgrange was given in honour of Tour founder Henri Desgrange to the first rider to pass the summit of the Col du Télégraphe on stage 17. This prize was won by Luis Balagué.
+Classification leadership by stage Stage Stage winner General classification Points classification Mountains classification Young rider classification Intermediate sprints classification Team classifications Combativity award By time By points P Francesco Moser Francesco Moser Francesco Moser no award Francesco Moser no award no award 1a Cees Priem Eddy Merckx Joop Zoetemelk Marc Demeyer Eddy Merckx 1b Rik Van Linden Francesco Moser 2 Ronald De Witte Rik Van Linden Lucien Van Impe Jean-Claude Misac 3 Karel Rottiers Jean-Claude Misac 4 Jacques Esclassan Martín Emilio Rodríguez 5 Theo Smit Michel Laurent 6 Eddy Merckx Eddy Merckx Yves Hézard 7 Francesco Moser Luis Ocaña 8 Barry Hoban Fedor den Hertog 9a Theo Smit Guy Sibille 9b Eddy Merckx 10 Felice Gimondi Lucien Van Impe 11 Joop Zoetemelk Giovanni Battaglin Joop Zoetemelk 12 Gerrie Knetemann Gerrie Knetemann 13 Michel Pollentier Francesco Moser Hennie Kuiper 14 Lucien Van Impe Eddy Merckx 15 Bernard Thévenet Bernard Thévenet Eddy Merckx 16 Bernard Thévenet Joop Zoetemelk 17 Vicente López Carril Vicente López Carril 18 Lucien Van Impe Ole Ritter 19 Rik Van Linden Jean-Claude Misac 20 Giacinto Santambrogio Roger Legeay 21 Rik Van Linden Herman Van Springel 22 Walter Godefroot Fedor den Hertog Final Bernard Thévenet Rik Van Linden Francesco Moser Marc Demeyer Eddy Merckx
Final standings
Legend Denotes the winner of the general classification Denotes the winner of the points classification Denotes the winner of the mountains classification Denotes the winner of the young rider classification
General classification + Final general classification (1–10) Rank Rider Team Time 1 114h 35' 31" 2 + 2' 47" 3 + 5' 01" 4 + 6' 42" 5 + 19' 29" 6 + 23' 05" 7 + 24' 13" 8 + 25' 51" 9 + 32' 01" 10 + 35' 36"