On the decisive stage 13 (Orcières – Briançon) of the 1972 Tour de France, Raymond Delisle, who was riding in support of Peugeot-BP-Michelin team leader Bernard Thevenet, broke clear of the lead group of sixteen riders and began a solo climb of the Vars with Eddy Merckx and Joaquim Agostinho giving chase. Merckx would eventually overtake Delisle on the descent into the valley that lay before a climb up the Izoard. And it would be Eddy Merckx who topped the Izoard and cruised into Briançona a minute and a half in front of his closest chasers. More importantly, Merckx now found himself a full 4 minutes and 43 seconds ahead of Luis Ocana who sat in second place overall in the Tour at the time. When Ocana abandoned with a lung infection just one day later, it was Cyrille Guimard (...who had been riding brilliantly) who inherited status as the second place contender. But after stage wins at 14b (Valloire - Aix-les-Bains) and 15 (Aix-les-Bains - Le-Revard), Guimard too was forced to abandon a mere 10 km into stage 18 (Belfort - Auxerre) due to excruciating knee pain. For Delisle’s part, he would finish the 1972 Tour de France in eleventh place - some 46 minutes and 27 seconds back of the general classification winner Eddy Merckx, and 9 minutes and 16 seconds behind Bernard Thevenet who finished in ninth.
