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Tour
de France 1964 “Anquetil verses Poulidor; an Epic Battle”:
Anquetil started the Tour de France with tired legs. He had just won the Giro
d’Italia and came with hopes of equaling Fausto Coppi’s (1949 and
1952) Tour-Giro double (winning the Tour and Giro in the same year). Anquetil’s
effort would not be easy because the Tour organizers formulated a race profile
for climbers. Archrival Raymond “Pou Pou” Poulidor entered the Tour
with strong climbing legs and great fitness.
Poulidor
consistently attacked Anquetil’s
tired leg on the early stages in the Alps. Stage 9 the last day of Alpine climbing
created a bizarre finish.
The stage finish was in Monaco and included a short circuit around the Principality.
Raymond Poulidor led the peloton into Monaco and sprinted for the finish line
that marked the start of the finishing circuit. Pou Pou thought he had won the
stage and raised his hands in victory. Jacques Anquetil took full advantage of
the mistake and rode away with the stage win. Poulidor finished in the same time,
but the stage win gave Anquetil a one-minute bonus. This time bonus would become
very important by the finish of the Tour.
Raymond Poulidor
still had hopes for the Maillot Jaune, but his opportunities
were dwindling. He must out distance
Anquetil on the Puy de Dome to attain his
goal. The 10 km climb (the final serious climb of the Tour) had an average
grade of 9% with the final 5 km at 13%. [see The Big Picture]
Spanish climber Julio
Jimenez broke clear of the peloton early on the Puy de Dome and set a brutal
pace up the climb. Federico Bahamontes quickly joined him in the breakaway,
while Anquetil and Poulidor did not react, choosing to match
each other pedal stroke
for pedal stroke. The weather was brutally hot, the crowd was large and very
vocal, and the two Frenchmen extended themselves to the maximum. Maitre Jacques
used his cunning and guile to hide his pain. Unaware of his rival’s vulnerability,
Poulidor never mounted a serious attack. In the final 1.5 km of the climb, Poulidor’s
pace did finally crack Anquetil. Slowly, one bike length opened, then two, then
three and Poulidor hammered toward the finish. Across the line “Pou Pou” was
third on the stage and the clock was ticking. A fading Anquetil struggled over
the final meters to the finish line 42 second behind Poulidor. Anquetil had survived
and saved his race lead by a scant 14 second. By the finish in Paris, 2 days
later, Anquetil had extended the lead to 55 seconds. If not for the one-minute
time bonus on stage 9, who could say, “what might have been?”
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