Bernard Thevenet (1975)

Stage 11 (Pau - Saint-Lary-Soulan) was the second day of Pyrenean climbing during the 1975 Tour de France. Along the many switchbacks that comprise the Pla d’Adet, Bernard Thevenet is seen here giving chase to Joop Zoetemelk with Eddy Merckx (...in the Maillot Jaune as race leader) and Lucien Van Impe (...in the Maillot a Pois Rouges designating him as the Climbing Points leader - 1975 was the first TdF in which the Dots appeared and they were by no coincidence sponsored by chocolatier Poulain whose candy wrappers happened to use a polka dot pattern) along behind. Indeed, Zoetemelk’s solo break was not to be caught, as he won the stage some 6 seconds ahead of a charging Thevenet with Merckx and Van Impe nearly a minute back. However, this decisive stage proved to be the undoing for many other of that year’s hopefuls such as Luis Ocana (...the 1973 Tour winner, who lost 2 minutes and 24 seconds and opted to not show up for the start of stage 13 citing knee problems), Felice Gimondi (...the 1965 Tour de France champion who had won stage 10 of the 1975 edition just the day before, who lost 5 minutes and 35 seconds), a young Giovanni Battaglin (...back 5 minutes and 37 seconds - he would withdraw two days later), Raymond Poulidor (...a full 6 minutes and 9 seconds), Francisco Moser (...who had previously been sitting in second place overall, gave up some 11 minutes and 11 seconds), Herman Van Springel (...who had only barely let the 1968 Tour slip away on the last day, lost 14 minutes and 1 second on this stage), Walter Godefroot (...the 1965 and 1972 Belgian National Road Race Champion, gave up 17 minutes and 35 seconds), and Gerrie Knetemann (...who would go on to win the first of what would eventually be ten career TdF stage wins with stage 12 of the 1975 Tour the very next day, lost a staggering 21 minutes and 41 seconds). With his strong second place stage finish, Bernard Thevenet now moved from fourth into second place overall, a mere 1 minute and 31 seconds behind Eddy Merckx, with stage winner Joop Zoetemelk vaulting into third place back 3 minutes and 53 seconds from the leader.