Race Details
Rudi Altig won the prologue, where Merckx finished second. In the team time trial in the second part of the first stage, Merckx's team won, and this gave Merckx the lead.
In the second stage, a group escaped, with Merckx's team mate Julien Stevens as highest-ranked cyclist. There were no dangerous competitors in the escape, so Merckx did not chase them. The group stayed away, and Stevens took over the lead, with Merckx in second place.
In the fourth stage, Rik Van Looy escaped, because he wanted to show himself, such that he would be selected for the Belgian squad for the 1969 UCI Road World Championships. Van Looy quickly took several minutes, and became the virtual leader of the race. With less than 40 km to go, Stevens tried to defend his lead by attacking. He was followed by a group of cyclists, including René Pijnen, one of Van Looy's team mates. Pijnen was trying to stop the chase, and this angered the other cyclists in the group. The group nonetheless was able to reduce the margin to less than a minute, and Stevens conserved his lead.
In the fifth stage, Stevens was not able to stay in the first group. Désiré Letort, who had joined Stevens in the chase the previous stage, became the new leader, 9 seconds ahead of Merckx.
The first mountains showed up in the sixth stage, with a mountain finish on the Ballon d’Alsace. Merckx won convincingly: Galera was second after 55 seconds, Altig after almost two minutes, and the next cyclist came after more than four minutes. Because Letort was more than seven minutes behind, Merckx was now the leader, with Altig in second place, more than two minutes behind.
Merckx won the short time trial in stage 8, but only gained two seconds on Altig. In the ninth stage, Roger Pingeon and Merckx were away, with Pingeon winning the sprint. Altig lost almost eight minutes, and was out of contention. The second place was now taken by Pingeon, more than five minutes behind.
Merckx added some time in the eleventh stage, which he won, and the twelfth stage, where he finished in the first group. After the twelfth stage, Merckx was leading by more than seven minutes. After he won the time trial in stage fifteen, it was more than eight minutes.
By then, his victory was almost sure, he just had to make sure that he stayed with his competitors. But in the seventeenth stage, Merckx did more than that, and got away alone, going solo for more than 140 km. By the finish, he had a margin of almost eight minutes on a group of seven cyclists, and the next cyclists where almost fifteen minutes away. Merckx had increased his margin to more than sixteen minutes. By winning the final time trial, he increased it to almost eighteen minutes.
Read more about this topic: 1969 Tour De France
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