The 1971 Tour de France was the 58th Tour de France, taking place 26 June to 18 July 1971. It consisted of 22 stages over 3,689 km (2,292 mi), ridden at an average speed of 36.925 km/h (23 mph).
The race was won by Eddy Merckx, his third consecutive victory. It was no easy win; after the 13th stage, Merckx was more than eight minutes behind Luis Ocaña in the general classification. In the 14th stage, Ocaña crashed in the descent of the Col de Menté and had to leave the race, what is named the most famous fall in Tour de France history.
Read more about 1971 Tour De France: Differences From The 1970 Tour De France, Participants, Race Details, Stages, Classification Leadership, Results, Aftermath, Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the words tour and/or france:
“Left Washington, September 6, on a tour through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.... Absent nineteen days. Received every where heartily. The country is again one and united! I am very happy to be able to feel that the course taken has turned out so well.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The bugle-call to arms again sounded in my war-trained ear, the bayonets gleamed, the sabres clashed, and the Prussian helmets and the eagles of France stood face to face on the borders of the Rhine.... I remembered our own armies, my own war-stricken country and its dead, its widows and orphans, and it nerved me to action for which the physical strength had long ceased to exist, and on the borrowed force of love and memory, I strove with might and main.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)