The 1973 Tour de France was the 60th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 30 June and 22 July, with 20 stages covering a distance of . Eddy Merckx, winner of the previous four editions, did not start the 1973 Tour, partly to avoid angry French fans and partly to please his sponsor; instead he rode and won the 1973 Vuelta a España and the 1973 Giro d'Italia. In his absence, Luis Ocaña dominated the race by winning four mountain stages and two time trials. The result being a margin of victory exceeding 15 minutes.
In 1973, a new team classification was added: the team points classification, calculated by adding the three best stage rankings per team; it would be calculated until 1988.
Teams
The Italian teams did not join the 1973 Tour de France, because no top French cyclist rode the 1973 Giro d'Italia. The Tour started with 12 teams, each with 11 cyclists.
The teams entering the race were:
De Kova–Lejeune
La Casera–Peña Bahamontes
Pre-race favourites
The winner of the previous four editions, Eddy Merckx had changed sponsors to the Italian Molteni. His contract said that he had to start in the 1973 Vuelta a España and the 1973 Giro d'Italia, and Merckx thought it was impossible to start in three grand tours in one year, so he stayed away from the Tour. Ocaña, who was in great shape, was now the main favourite, with Fuente, Poulidor and Thévenet as his biggest threats. Ocaña was not the clear favourite; he had already crashed out of the Tour three times, and he was seen as fragile. Zoetemelk had changed teams, because he did not have the full support of his team leader. Among the Italian riders absent were world champion Marino Basso and former Tour winner Felice Gimondi.
Route and stages After the 1972 Tour de France, there were rumours that the 1973 Tour would become easier, to suit French cyclist Cyrille Guimard better. However, when the 1973 Tour route was announced in December 1972, the organisation had included three more mountains compared to 1972. The race started on 30 June, and had two rest days, in Divonne-les-Bains and . The highest point of elevation in the race was at the summit tunnel of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 8.
+ Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner P 30 June Scheveningen (Netherlands) Individual time trial 1a 1 July Scheveningen (Netherlands) to Rotterdam (Netherlands) Plain stage 1b Rotterdam (Netherlands) to Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) Plain stage 2a 2 July Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) Team time trial 2b Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) to Roubaix Plain stage 3 3 July Roubaix to Reims Plain stage 4 4 July Reims to Nancy Plain stage 5 5 July Nancy to Mulhouse Stage with mountain(s) 6 6 July Mulhouse to Divonne-les-Bains Stage with mountain(s) 7 July Divonne-les-Bains Rest day 7a 8 July Divonne-les-Bains to Gaillard Stage with mountain(s) 7b Gaillard to Méribel Stage with mountain(s) 8 9 July Moûtiers to Les Orres Stage with mountain(s) 9 10 July Embrun to Nice Stage with mountain(s) 10 11 July Nice to Aubagne Stage with mountain(s) 11 12 July Montpellier to Argelès-sur-Mer Plain stage 12a 13 July Perpignan to Thuir Individual time trial 12b Thuir to Stage with mountain(s) 14 July Rest day 13 15 July Bourg-Madame to Luchon Stage with mountain(s) 14 16 July Luchon to Pau Stage with mountain(s) 15 17 July Pau to Fleurance Plain stage 16a 18 July Fleurance to Bordeaux Plain stage 16b Bordeaux Individual time trial 17 19 July Sainte-Foy-la-Grande to Brive-la-Gaillarde Plain stage 18 20 July Brive-la-Gaillarde to Puy de Dôme Stage with mountain(s) 19 21 July Bourges to Versailles Plain stage 20a 22 July Versailles Individual time trial 20b Versailles to Paris Plain stage Total
Race overview
Zoetemelk won the opening prologue, one second ahead of Poulidor. In the first part of the next stage, Teirlinck won and took over the lead. Ocaña and Herman Van Springel fell down when a dog crossed the road, but both suffered no serious damage. In the second part of that stage, Van Springel bridged the gap to Catieau, who had escaped. Van Springel did all the work to stay away, while Catieau did not help his team captain's rival. They stayed away until the end of the stage, where Catieau won the sprint, and Van Springel became the new race leader.
In the third stage, a group with Guimard and Ocana escaped. Van Springel, Zoetemelk, Fuentes, Thévenet and Poulidor were not in that group, and had to chase them. The group stayed away, Guimard won the sprint and Catieau became the race leader. More important for the final result was that Ocaña won more than two minutes on Zoetemelk, and more than seven minutes on Fuente.
In stage seven, when the first mountains were climbed, Ocaña attacked, and only Zoetemelk could follow. A few kilometers from the summit, Zoetemelk had to let Ocaña go, and Ocaña finished solo. Ocaña became the new race leader, almost three minutes ahead of Zoetemelk. In the eighth stage, Ocaña and Fuente both attacked. Ocaña and Fuente did not like each other, and when Fuente stopped working, Ocaña was angry, especially when Fuente passed him just before the top of the Izoard to steal the points for the mountain classification. When Fuente had a flat tire, Ocaña did not wait for him, and left him behind, beating him by one minute at the finish line. All the others were far behind: Thévenet and Martinez followed after seven minutes, the other pre-race favourites after twenty minutes.
In the thirteenth stage, Poulidor crashed, and was taken away with a helicopter. In the sixteenth stage, the cyclists were slower than expected, and finished one hour after the latest time schedule. The train that they should have taken had already left, and they had to use buses.
In the time trial in stage 17, Fuente lost his second place in the general classification to Thévenet. Fuente tried to take it back in the mountain stage 18, but he failed and even lost some time.
Doping Three cyclists tested positive during the 1973 Tour de France: Barry Hoban, after the 9th stage; Claude Baud, after the 13th stage; and Michel Roques, after the 18th stage. All three received a fine of 1000 Swiss Francs, one-month suspension and ten minutes penalty time in the general classification.
Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were several classifications in the 1973 Tour de France, three 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.
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, but was not identified with a jersey in 1973.
Another classification was the combination classification. This classification was calculated as a combination of the other classifications, its leader wore the 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 1973, 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. For the first time, 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, Luis Ocaña won the overall super-combativity award, also decided by journalists. The Souvenir Henri Desgrange was given to the first rider to pass the memorial to Tour founder Henri Desgrange near the summit of the Col du Galibier on stage 8. This prize was won by Ocaña.
+Classification leadership by stage Stage Winner General classification Points classification Mountains classification Combination classification Intermediate sprints classification Team classifications Combativity award Elegant award Amiable award By time By points P Joop Zoetemelk Joop Zoetemelk Joop Zoetemelk no award no award no award no award no award no award 1a Willy Teirlinck Willy Teirlinck Willy Teirlinck Willy Teirlinck Willy Teirlinck José Catieau Ludo Delcroix Jan Krekels 1b José Catieau Herman Van Springel Herman Van Springel 2a Tino Tabak Willy Teirlinck Joël Millard 2b Eddy Verstraeten Frans Verbeeck Marc Demeyer 3 Cyrille Guimard José Catieau Cyrille Guimard Willy De Geest Willy De Geest Luis Ocaña Jean-Pierre Danguillaume José Catieau 4 Joop Zoetemelk Herman Van Springel Antonio Menéndez Michel Périn Jean-Claude Blocher 5 Walter Godefroot Charly Grosskost Charly Grosskost Willy Abbeloos Juan Zurano 6 Jean-Pierre Danguillaume Pedro Torres Raymond Riotte Lucien Aimar Georges Pintens 7a Luis Ocaña Luis Ocaña Walter Godefroot Leif Mortensen Gérard Moneyron 7b Bernard Thévenet Lucien Van Impe 8 Luis Ocaña Luis Ocaña Luis Ocaña Michael Wright Pedro Torres 9 Vicente López Carril José Manuel Fuente José Manuel Fuente Vicente López Carril Yves Hézard Bernard Thévenet 10 Michael Wright Raymond Riotte Roger Gilson Joaquim Agostinho 11 Barry Hoban Joop Zoetemelk no award Jean-Claude Largeau Jean-Jacques Sanquer 12a Luis Ocaña Lucien Van Impe Jacques Esclassan Michel Pollentier 12b Lucien Van Impe 13 Luis Ocaña Joop Zoetemelk Bernard Labourdette Vicente López Carril 14 Pedro Torres Joop Zoetemelk Jack Mourioux Raymond Riotte 15 Wilfried David Wilfried David Daniel Ducreux René Grelin 16a Walter Godefroot Bernard Thévenet Régis Ovion Herman Van Springel 16b Joaquim Agostinho 17 Claude Tollet Pedro Torres Jacques-André Hochart Jürgen Tschan Michel Roques 18 Luis Ocaña Jean-Claude Blocher Lucien Van Impe Ferdinand Julien 19 Barry Hoban Marc Demeyer Johny Schleck Christian Blain 20a Luis Ocaña Bernard Thévenet Luis Ocaña Guy Santy 20b Bernard Thévenet FinalLuis OcañaHerman Van Springel Pedro Torres Joop Zoetemelk Marc Demeyer Luis Ocaña Michel Périn Willy Teirlinck
Final standings
Legend Denotes the winner of the general classification Denotes the winner of the points classification Denotes the winner of the combination classification
General classification + Final general classification (1–10) Rank Rider Team Time 1 122h 25' 34" 2 + 15' 51" 3 + 17' 15" 4 + 26' 22" 5 + 30' 20" 6 + 32' 01" 7 + 33' 02" 8 + 35' 51" 9 + 36' 18" 10 + 36' 59"