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1971 Tour de France, Race Used Presse Moto Plaques, MATCHED NUMBER SET- Race Winner Eddy Merckx
1971 Tour de France, Race Used Presse Moto Plaques, MATCHED NUMBER SET- Race Winner Eddy Merckx - Image 2
1971 Tour de France, Race Used Presse Moto Plaques, MATCHED NUMBER SET- Race Winner Eddy Merckx - Image 3
1971 Tour de France, Race Used Presse Moto Plaques, MATCHED NUMBER SET- Race Winner Eddy Merckx - Image 4
1971 Tour de France, Race Used Presse Moto Plaques, MATCHED NUMBER SET- Race Winner Eddy Merckx - Image 5
1971 Tour de France, Race Used Presse Moto Plaques, MATCHED NUMBER SET- Race Winner Eddy Merckx - Image 6

1971 Tour de France, Race Used Presse Moto Plaques, MATCHED NUMBER SET- Race Winner Eddy Merckx

$390.00

Race Winner Eddy Merckx

We rarely see these matched numbers, and this set is a beauty.

The clear favorite to win the 1971 Tour de France was Eddy Merckx, who had dominated the race in both 1969 and 1970, winning by large margins. By the start of the 1971 Tour, he had already claimed 13 victories in the early-season racing, confirming his status as the strongest rider in the peloton. His fiercest rival was Luis Ocaña, but Ocaña suffered a devastating crash on a wet descent during Stage 14 in the Massif Central and was forced to abandon the race. With Ocaña out, Merckx secured overall victory, finishing 9 minutes and 51 seconds ahead of Joop Zoetemelk and 11 minutes and 6 seconds ahead of third-place Lucien Van Impe.

Merckx also claimed the Points and Combination classifications, while Van Impe took the Mountains jersey, and Pieter Nassen won the Sprints classification.

In today’s racing, the race organizers’ cars, team vehicles, and other participants in the official race caravan have disposable stickers affixed to their windshields. Slipping a bit into the way back machine, there was a time when the cars had plaques attached to the front of the follow cars.

As with most things ephemeral, most plaques were promptly tossed in the trash once the race was finished. The ones that survived have become quite collectible.

Made of Metal

Large Plaque Size:  9 ¾  x 5  inches  (25 x 12.5 cm)
Small Number Plaque Size: 4 x 5 inches (10 x 12.5 cm)

This is a one-of-a-kind item; please look carefully at the photos to determine the condition.

Out of stock

SKU: COL-0475 Categories: , Tags: ,

Description

1971 Tour de France

The 1971 Tour de France was the 58th edition of the race, one of cycling’s Grand Tours. Covering 3,608 kilometres (2,242 miles), it consisted of 22 stages, including three split stages. The race began in Mulhouse on 26 June and concluded at the Vélodrome de Vincennes in Paris on 18 July. It featured three individual time trials and two rest days.

Eddy Merckx of the Molteni team won the general classification, successfully defending his title to claim his third consecutive Tour de France victory. Joop Zoetemelk of Flandria–Mars finished second, 9 minutes and 51 seconds behind, while Lucien Van Impe of Sonolor–Lejeune placed third, just over 11 minutes adrift.

Pre-race favorite Merckx took the first yellow jersey after his team won the prologue team time trial. His teammate Rini Wagtmans briefly claimed the lead after the second split of Stage 1, before Merckx regained it later that day. The general classification began to take shape after Stage 2, when a breakaway group of sixteen, mostly composed of pre-race contenders, finished with a lead of over nine minutes.

On Stage 8 in the Massif Central, Merckx’s closest rival, Luis Ocaña of the Bic team, attacked and won at the summit of Puy de Dôme, moving to within just over 30 seconds of Merckx, behind second-placed Zoetemelk. In the Chartreuse Mountains on Stage 10, Merckx suffered a puncture and lost time to a group of rivals, with Zoetemelk taking the race lead. The following day, Ocaña launched a 60-kilometre solo attack to Orcières-Merlette in the Alps, taking the yellow jersey with an overall lead of more than eight minutes.

Merckx responded by reclaiming nearly two minutes the next day, breaking away early with a small group in a record-speed ride to Marseille. Two days later, during Stage 14 in the Pyrenees, a thunderstorm swept over the Col de Menté. Ocaña crashed on the slick descent and was subsequently hit by other riders, forcing him to abandon the race due to injury. Merckx, reluctant to take advantage of the situation, assumed the race lead and held the yellow jersey comfortably through to the finish, sealing his victory with a win in the final individual time trial in Paris.

In the other classifications, Merckx also won both the points and combination classifications. Van Impe claimed the mountains classification, while Pieter Nassen, a teammate of Zoetemelk, won the intermediate sprints classification. The Bic team won the team classification, and Ocaña was named the most combative rider. Merckx won the most stages, with four victories.

Epilogue

At the time, the 1971 Tour was considered the most exciting in recent years, due mainly to the contest between Merckx and Ocaña. It has since been ranked among the greatest battles and defining moments in Tour de France history, particularly for the drama of stages 11, 12, and 14—described as a “trilogy” by journalist Richard Moore in his book Étape: The Untold Stories of the Tour de France’s Defining Stages.

Some observers believed that had Ocaña continued, he would have won the race. Tour journalist Jock Wadley predicted Ocaña would have held a five-minute advantage over Merckx before the final time trial and finished with a lead of three minutes. Jacques Goddet maintained that Merckx was the weaker climber and could not have caught Ocaña, while writer Olivier Dazat argued that Merckx’s mental toughness would have driven him to chase Ocaña down. Jean-Pierre Riotte went so far as to say Ocaña’s crash was “provoked” by Merckx and that, if not at that moment, Ocaña would have faltered eventually.

Ocaña soon recovered from his injuries and finished the season strongly. He next faced Merckx over a month later at the world road race championship in Mendrisio, Switzerland, where a poorly timed effort to get a drink allowed Merckx to attack and claim his second rainbow jersey. The rivalry resumed in the following year’s Tour, but Ocaña abandoned due to illness. Merckx went on to win his fourth Tour, and added a fifth and final win in 1974. He skipped the 1973 edition, which Ocaña won, but their rivalry never again reached the heights of 1971. Merckx later named Ocaña as his closest rival and is now widely considered the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling.

The riders who finished second, third, and fourth in the 1971 Tour—Joop Zoetemelk, Lucien Van Impe, and Bernard Thévenet—each went on to win the Tour de France themselves: Zoetemelk in 1980, Van Impe in 1976, and Thévenet in 1975 and 1977.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

 

Additional information

Weight 2 lbs

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