It had been Lucien Van Impe (...visible at the far left in this photo wearing the Maillot a Pois Rouges designating him as the Climbing Points leader) who had been first over both the Tourmalet and Aspin during the early part of stage 11 (Pau - Saint-Lary-Soulan) during the 1975 Tour de France - the first climbing stage of any significance during that year’s Tour. But after the lead chase group finally managed to reel in Van Impe, it was Bernard Thevenet of Peugeot-BP-Michelin who would go on the attack, prompting Eddy Merckx wearing the Maillot Jaune as race leader to respond, only to have Joop Zoetemelk (...team GAN-Mercier, seen on the far right of the lineup) take off with Thevenet in hot pursuit. Try as he might, Thevenet could not catch the flying Dutchman, and Zoetemelk would cross the finish line 6 seconds ahead of a hard charging Thevenet. The final dash would drop both Merckx and Van Impe who finished well back, and in the process, shatter the remaining field of riders including 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 Tour 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.
