 Route of the 1977 Tour de France | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | 30 June – 24 July 1977 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stages | 22 + Prologue, including five split stages | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Distance | 4,096 km (2,545 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Winning time | 115h 38' 30" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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← 1976 1978 → | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The1977 Tour de France was the 64th edition of theTour de France, taking place between 30 June and 24 July. The total race distance was 22 stages over 4,096 km (2,545 mi).
Lucien Van Impe, the winner of the previous year, wanted to repeat his victory and going into stage 16 Van Impe along withEddy Merckx andJoop Zoetemelk were all within about 1:00 ofBernard Thévenet who had just taken themaillot jaune fromDietrich Thurau.[1] Merckx fell off the back near the end of the tour, Zoetemelk was penalized ten minutes and Van Impe had his bike damaged when he was hit by a motorist onAlpe d'Huez where Kuiper won the stage but was unable to break Thévenet, who won the Tour with the smallest margin since the1968 Tour de France.[2]
To ride the Tour, teams had to pay money. The otherGrand Tours, theGiro d'Italia and theVuelta a España, paid the teams money to start. For financial reasons, some teams chose to avoid the Tour, and only 100 cyclists started the race, divided in ten teams of ten cyclists each. One of the notable absentees wasMichel Pollentier.[3]
The teams entering the race were:[4]
Bernard Thévenet, the winner of 1975, was considered the main favourite, because the course of the race was considered suited to his talents. In March 1977, Thévenet had been penalised for a positive doping test inParis–Nice.[5]
The winner of the 1976 edition,Lucien Van Impe, was specialized in climbing, so his chances in the 1977 edition with less mountains were slimmer. Two other contenders were teammatesRaymond Delisle andJoop Zoetemelk, fourth and second in the 1976 edition.Hennie Kuiper, the reigningworld champion, was also a favourite.[5]
Five-time winnerEddy Merckx was also competing, and was still considered an outsider for the victory, but he was no longer as dominant as before.
The 1977 Tour de France started on 30 June, and had two rest days, in Bordeaux and Freiburg.[6] The 1976 Tour had been focused around the mountains, with five hilltop finishes. In 1977, the climbing was de-emphasized, with only two hilltop finishes, and more emphasis on the time trials.[5] Thehighest point of elevation in the race was 2,115 m (6,939 ft) at the summit of theCol du Tourmalet mountain pass on stage 2.[7][8]
The first stage from Fleurance to Auch was split in two parts: 140 km from Fleurance toLectoure, directly followed by 97 km from Lectoure to Auch.[9] It was the first time a "flying stage" was used. The stage was split in two parts, but there was no stop in between. After the riders reached the finish line of the first part, they immediately continued for the next part; if a group was ahead of the rest, they kept this advantage. The first riders to reach the finish of the flying stage were given prizes and points for thepoints classification as if it was a normal stage; thegeneral classification was not changed.[10]
| Stage | Date | Course | Distance | Type | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | 30 June | Fleurance | 5 km (3.1 mi) |  | Individual time trial |  Dietrich Thurau (FRG) |
| 1 | 1 July | Fleurance toAuch | 237 km (147 mi) |  | Plain stage |  Pierre-Raymond Villemiane (FRA) |
| 2 | 2 July | Auch toPau | 253 km (157 mi) |  | Stage with mountain(s) | Dietrich Thurau (FRG) |
| 3 | 3 July | Oloron-Sainte-Marie toVitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) | 248 km (154 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) |  José Nazabal (ESP) |
| 4 | 4 July | Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) toSeignosse le Penon | 256 km (159 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | Régis Delépine (FRA) |
| 5a | 5 July | Morcenx toBordeaux | 139 km (86 mi) | | Plain stage | Jacques Esclassan (FRA) |
| 5b | Bordeaux | 30 km (19 mi) | | Individual time trial | Dietrich Thurau (FRG) | |
| 6 July | Bordeaux | Rest day | ||||
| 6 | 7 July | Bordeaux toLimoges | 225 km (140 mi) | | Plain stage |  Jan Raas (NED) |
| 7a | 8 July | Jaunay-Clan toAngers | 140 km (87 mi) | | Plain stage |  Patrick Sercu (BEL) |
| 7b | Angers | 4 km (2.5 mi) | | Team time trial | Fiat France | |
| 8 | 9 July | Angers toLorient | 247 km (153 mi) | | Plain stage |  Giacinto Santambrogio (ITA) |
| 9 | 10 July | Lorient toRennes | 187 km (116 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | Klaus-Peter Thaler (FRG) |
| 10 | 11 July | Bagnoles-de-l'Orne toRouen | 174 km (108 mi) | | Plain stage | Fedor den Hertog (NED) |
| 11 | 12 July | Rouen toRoubaix | 242 km (150 mi) | | Plain stage | Jean-Pierre Danguillaume (FRA) |
| 12 | 13 July | Roubaix toCharleroi (Belgium) | 193 km (120 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | Patrick Sercu (BEL) |
| 14 July | Freiburg | Rest day | ||||
| 13a | 15 July | Freiburg (West Germany) | 46 km (29 mi) | | Plain stage | Patrick Sercu (BEL) |
| 13b | Altkirch toBesançon | 160 km (99 mi) | | Plain stage | Jean-Pierre Danguillaume (FRA) | |
| 14 | 16 July | Besançon toThonon-les-Bains | 230 km (140 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | Bernard Quilfen (FRA) |
| 15a | 17 July | Thonon-les-Bains toMorzine | 105 km (65 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | Paul Wellens (BEL) |
| 15b | Morzine toAvoriaz | 14 km (8.7 mi) | | Individual time trial | Lucien Van Impe (BEL)[a] | |
| 16 | 18 July | Morzine toChamonix | 121 km (75 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | Dietrich Thurau (FRG) |
| 17 | 19 July | Chamonix toAlpe d'Huez | 185 km (115 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | Hennie Kuiper (NED) |
| 18 | 20 July | Rossignol Voiron toSaint-Étienne | 199 km (124 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | no winner[b] |
| 19 | 21 July | Saint-Trivier-sur-Moignans toDijon | 172 km (107 mi) | | Plain stage | Gerrie Knetemann (NED) |
| 20 | 22 July | Dijon | 50 km (31 mi) | | Individual time trial | Bernard Thévenet (FRA) |
| 21 | 23 July | Montereau-Fault-Yonne toVersailles | 142 km (88 mi) | | Plain stage | Gerrie Knetemann (NED) |
| 22a | 24 July | Paris | 6 km (3.7 mi) | | Individual time trial | Dietrich Thurau (FRG) |
| 22b | Paris (Champs-Élysées) | 91 km (57 mi) | | Plain stage | Alain Meslet (FRA) | |
| Total | 4,096 km (2,545 mi)[13] | |||||
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The prologue was won byDietrich Thurau, who made his debut in the Tour. Thurau wanted to be the leader when the Tour would enter his native Germany in stage 13. In the second stage, big mountains were scheduled, unusually early in the race, and Thurau saw this as the biggest threat to this goal. When Van Impe, Thévenet and Kuiper were away leaving Thurau behind, Thurau worked together with Merckx, and they were able to reach the leaders, and Thurau was able to win the sprint.[5] The second part of the fifth stage was a time trial. Eddy Merckx, at that moment only 8 seconds behind Thurau, was expected to win enough time on Thurau to become the new leader, but surprisingly Thurau won the time trial, and extended his lead.[5]
Thurau was able to keep control of the race for the next stages, and when the Tour entered Germany, he was still leading the race, 51 seconds ahead of Merckx.[5]
Prior to the start of the second part of stage 15, an individual climbing time trial, Thurau was 0:51 ahead of Merckx with Thévenet in third place at 1:22, Kuiper in fourth at 1:40, in fifth wasAlain Meslet, Van Impe was in sixth at 2:31 and Zoetemelk clinging to the Top 10 at 3:40. This quick, but difficult hill climb up theAvoriaz would separate the handful of riders with a legitimate chance winning thegeneral classification from the rest of the field as the Tour entered its third, final, and by far most grueling week.
The stage was won by Zoetemelk, with Van Impe being placed second as Thévenet claimed third twenty seconds behind Van Impe. Merckx finished nearly two minutes behind Zoetemelk in tenth place and while Thurau finished outside the Top 10, he, perhaps surprisingly, did not fall out of contention as he now was in second place in the general classification, 0:11 behind the new leaderBernard Thévenet.[14]
With a difficult hilly stage, and then two major mountain stages over the next three days, which would decide the 1977 Tour de France, Merckx was now in third place at 0:25 back, Van Impe was fourth at 0:33, Kuiper was fifth at 0:49 and Zoetemelk moved from 10th place nearly four minutes behind the leader, up to 6th place just over one minute behind Thévenet. With four of the most dominant general classification riders and the two outsiders of Kuiper and Thurau within about a minute, it was clear the Tour was not decided yet and the upcoming mountains were going to be exciting, vicious and attack after attack after attack would be coming.
In stage 16, these attacks blew apart the entirePeloton as the elite contenders separated themselves from everybody else in the field. Initially Didi Thurau was dropped with thedomestiques, breakaway hopefuls and sprinters but he was able to fight his way back to the point where he could see the group of elite riders at the base of the final climb. From there he would rejoin the group on the descent, maneuver his way to the front and actually beat everybody in the sprint to gut out an impressive stage win all while keeping himself in contention for the overall lead. Anyone not in this front group of elite riders pretty much lost their chance at winning the Tour, with the exception ofEddy Merckx, as he was dropped, but was still within about three minutes of Thévenet in seventh place overall and while for most any other rider a gap of more than three minutes this late in the race would be all but impossible to overcome with six riders ahead of him, for Merckx nothing was impossible and nobody would have been surprised if he somehow found a way to win this Tour. The new sixth place riderFrancisco Galdós was able to stay with the other main contenders and moved ahead of Merckx.
The overall situation between Thévenet, Thurau, Van Impe, Kuiper and Zoetemelk remained the same headed into stage 17, which included a grueling finish atopAlpe d'Huez. Well into stage 17Lucien Van Impe saw an opportunity to attack and took it separating himself from the general classification contenders building more than a minute gap to the point that he was virtually leading the general classification by the time he reached the bottom of the climb on Alpe d'Huez. This put Thévenet in the position where he now had to give chase or lose the lead.
Raymond Martin, Merckx, Thurau,Raymond Delisle,Michel Laurent, Sebastian Pozo andJoaquim Agostinho were among the elite group of riders when the counterattack against Van Impe came. While these riders finished considerably ahead of the rest of the field it was only Kuiper, Galdos and Zoetemelk who were able to go with Thévenet as he rode away from everyone else in pursuit of Van Impe. These riders made Thévenet defend his first position in the general classification, and do all of the work while riding in hisslipstream, at no time coming to the front to take a pull of the heavy climbing work.
Thévenet was determined to win his second Tour de France, just as Van Impe showed his determination to repeat as champion when he launched his early attack, although for Van Impe it was out of the ordinary, being as ordinarily he would be racing for themountains classification points. Fortunately for Thévenet his hard work was paying off as the gap between Van Impe and the first chase group began to close, but as he was reeling in one opponent he was also bringing two other opponents along with him and not just bringing them along but putting them in position to attack his position in the general classification as he was the one doing all the work. Naturally Kuiper and Zoetemelk were both determined to earn their first ever Tour victory so they didn't think twice about forcing Thévenet to lead the way in chasing downLucien Van Impe.
Before long the gap had become small enough that the television and official cars riding behind Van Impe had to move out of the way as it was beginning to look as though this hard charging chase group would catch the leader before the finish line. One of these cars ended up hitting Van Impe severely damaging his bike in the process and while he tried to continue riding it just wasn't possible. As a result, he was stuck waiting and watching for the team car to appear around the corner to repair his wheel or get him a new bike but unfortunately two of the riders closest to him in the standings appeared before his team car did and raced right on by. By the end of the stage Zoetemelk andFrancisco Galdós had been dropped whenHennie Kuiper launched an attack as Thévenet was digging deeper and pushing harder than he ever had in his whole life, not so much to take advantage of Van Impe's misfortune, although this certainly worked to his benefit, but to chase downHennie Kuiper who was up the road by himself headed for the finish line so close to him in the standings that he could take over the yellow jersey as leader of thegeneral classification.
Thévenet was enraged with Kuiper for making him to do all the work chasing down Van Impe and then attacking in an attempt to take the first place in the general classification and had to push himself to his absolute breaking point in order to cross the finish line second place to Kuiper 0:41 behind.
Despite being hit by a motorist, Van Impe ended up 2:06 behind Kuiper while still finishing ahead of everybody else in the race. Galdos crossed at 2:59, Zoetemelk crossed more than four minutes later as the second level of the top tier riders including Laurent, Pozo, Martin andPedro Torres started filtering across the line more than eight minutes behind Kuiper.
By the end of the day the devastation wrought on thepeloton was complete as 30 riders were thrown out of the race for finishing outside the time limit set by Thévenet, Zoetemelk, Kuiper, Galdos and especially Van Impe for forcing the pace. At this point these five riders were the only ones with a realistic chance at victory as Thévenet kept his lead by a minuscule 0:08 over Hennie Kuiper whileLucien Van Impe was still in contention in third place 1:59 behind as Galdos and Zoetemelk were about four and five minutes behind respectively.
While all the main contenders passed the doping controls following stage 17 it was later learned that Zoetemelk had tested positive following his time trial victory in the second part of stage 15.[15] Doping was appearing to be a bit more commonplace than officials or fans realised, which contributed to a more relaxed rider culture on the subject. After he retired Thévenet would admit that he doped when he won the1975 Tour de France as well as in other editions just as numerous other riders had.[citation needed]
In stage 18,Joaquim Agostinho initially won the day after launching a breakaway that finished about eight minutes ahead of everyone else in the field except forAntonio Menéndez, who finished 3:17 behind him, andEddy Merckx who finished 3:20 back. Agostinho and Menendez both failed doping controls while Merckx was not tested (the testing protocol tested the stage winner, runner up, race leader and two other randomly selected cyclists). Agostinho's penalty would cost him in the end as he would finish outside the top 10 because of it. There were no major changes at the top of the general classification as all attacks and counterattacks were answered by the group and they all finished with the same time.
Typically after the final mountain stage there is one last chance to gain time in the overall classification with anindividual time trial, but in this year's edition there were two ITT's to decide the final winner of the general classification. One typical incredibly challenging 50 km course aroundDijon in stage 20 and one similar to an initial prologue during the split stage 22A which was around theChamps-Élysées prior to the circuit finish in 22B.
During the stage 20 time trial only seven riders of the decimated main field were able to finish within three minutes of eventual stage winner Bernard Thévenet. Of these seven only fourth-place finisherGerrie Knetemann and fifth placeJoseph Bruyere were not in the top 10 of the general classification. Didi Thurau came in second 0:23 behind and while Hennie Kuiper put in an incredibly strong ride he was not able to outperform Thévenet as he was 0:28 slower in third place, but still firmly in command of second place in the general classification, now 0:36 back. While Agostinho, Merckx and Van Impe each put in a strong time trial by this point in the race Van Impe was in third at 3:22 back so realistically, with only one short time trial and one and a half flat stages remaining, only Kuiper had even the slightest chance of overtaking Thévenet and this didn't seem likely as Thévenet had just defeated Kuiper.
Stage 21 was a flat stage where three riders managed to either survive a breakaway, or launch a late break to stay away from thepeloton and finish 0:19 ahead of the main field. Being asJacques Esclassan had a commanding lead in thepoints classification overGiacinto Santambrogio, Didi Thurau and sixth place sprinterBarry Hoban the escape made byJoop Zoetemelk,Michel Laurent and stage winnerGerrie Knetemann did nothing to change any of the classifications although it was another strong performance by Knetemann who would win ten Tour stages in his career and also be instrumental in helping Zoetemelk win the1980 Tour de France along with ten time stage winnerJan Raas.
Stage 22A was the final opportunity to change the overall classification although in a time trial this short making up gaps of even over 0:20 was all but impossible, let alone the 0:37 Kuiper would need to overtake Thévenet. In the end Thévenet would add twelve seconds to his lead officially securing his overall victory in the 1977 Tour de France. Impressively in Stage 22B,Alain Meslet would survive a breakaway and finish nearly a minute ahead of the main field to win on theChamps-Élysées.
The podium ended up withBernard Thévenet winning his 2ndTour de France, followed byHennie Kuiper in 2nd andLucien Van Impe, who also won anothermountains classification.[16]
Every day, five cyclists were tested for doping: the leader in the general classification, the winner of the stage, the runner-up of the stage, and two randomly selected cyclists, for a total of 110 tests.[17] Six cyclists tested positive forPemoline: Joop Zoetemelk (15th stage), Sebastien Pozo (16th stage), Antonio Menéndez (17th and 18th stage),Joaquim Agostinho (18th stage),Fernando Mendes (18th stage) andLuis Ocaña (18th stage).[18][19][20] Pozo was unable to provide urine within two hours for the doping control after the prologue, which is treated as a positive result.[17] All were fined with 1000 Swiss Francs, received one month of provisional suspension, were set back to the last place in the stage and penalised with 10 minutes in the general classification.[19]
Directly after the Tour, there were rumours about Thévenet and Kuiper having used doping. The Tour officials came together, and made a statement that Thévenet was officially the winner of the Tour.Some months later, when Thévenet was in hospital, he admitted having usedcortisone. His popularity plunged after that, and Thévenet was never again able to compete for the general classification.[15] Though he was able to stay near the second tier general classification riders approaching the end of his career as he finished in the top 20 of both the 1980 Tour de France and Vuelta.
There were several classifications in the 1977 Tour de France, four of them awardingjerseys to their leaders.[21] The most important was thegeneral 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.[22]
Additionally, there was apoints 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.[23]
There was also amountains 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, and wore a white jersey with redpolka dots.[24]
Another classification was theyoung rider classification. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only neo-professionals were eligible, and the leader wore a white jersey.[25]
The fifth individual classification was theintermediate sprints classification. This classification had similar rules as the points classification, but only points were awarded on intermediate sprints. In 1977, this classification had no associated jersey.[26]
For theteam 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 yellowcaps.[26] 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.[26]
In addition, there was acombativity 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.[27] At the conclusion of the Tour, Gerrie Knetemann won the overall super-combativity award, also decided by journalists.[6] TheSouvenir Henri Desgrange was given in honour of Tour founderHenri Desgrange to the first rider to pass the summit of theCol du Tourmalet on stage 2. This prize was won by Lucien Van Impe.[28]
| Legend | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | Denotes the winner of thegeneral classification |  | Denotes the winner of thepoints classification |
 | Denotes the winner of themountains classification |  | Denotes the winner of theyoung rider classification |
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bernard Thévenet (FRA) | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | 115h 38' 30" |
| 2 | Hennie Kuiper (NED) | TI–Raleigh | + 0' 48" |
| 3 | Lucien Van Impe (BEL) | Lejeune–BP | + 3' 32" |
| 4 | Francisco Galdós (ESP) | Kas–Campagnolo | + 7' 45" |
| 5 | Dietrich Thurau (FRG) | TI–Raleigh | + 12' 24" |
| 6 | Eddy Merckx (BEL) | Fiat France | + 12' 38" |
| 7 | Michel Laurent (FRA) | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | + 17' 42" |
| 8 | Joop Zoetemelk (NED) | Miko–Mercier–Vivagel | + 19' 22" |
| 9 | Raymond Delisle (FRA) | Miko–Mercier–Vivagel | + 21' 32" |
| 10 | Alain Meslet (FRA) | Gitane–Campagnolo | + 27' 31" |
| Rank | Rider | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacques Esclassan (FRA) | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | 236 |
| 2 | Giacinto Santambrogio (ITA) | Bianchi–Campagnolo | 140 |
| 3 | Dietrich Thurau (FRG) | TI–Raleigh | 137 |
| 4 | Pierre-Raymond Villemiane (FRA) | Gitane–Campagnolo | 128 |
| 5 | Eddy Merckx (BEL) | Fiat France | 93 |
| 6 |  Barry Hoban (GBR) | Miko–Mercier–Vivagel | 91 |
| 7 | Hennie Kuiper (NED) | TI–Raleigh | 76 |
| 8 | Bernard Thévenet (FRA) | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | 65 |
| 9 | Jean-Pierre Danguillaume (FRA) | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | 61 |
| 10 | Lucien Van Impe (BEL) | Lejeune–BP | 60 |
| Rank | Rider | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lucien Van Impe (BEL) | Lejeune–BP | 244 |
| 2 | Hennie Kuiper (NED) | TI–Raleigh | 174 |
| 3 | Pedro Torres (ESP) | Teka | 143 |
| 4 | Bernard Thévenet (FRA) | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | 114 |
| 5 | Joop Zoetemelk (NED) | Miko–Mercier–Vivagel | 80 |
| 6 | Francisco Galdós (ESP) | Kas–Campagnolo | 53 |
| 7 | Antonio Menéndez (ESP) | Kas–Campagnolo | 52 |
| 8 |  Joaquim Agostinho (POR) | Teka | 42 |
| 9 | Dietrich Thurau (FRG) | TI–Raleigh | 42 |
| 10 | Raymond Delisle (FRA) | Miko–Mercier–Vivagel | 42 |
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dietrich Thurau (FRG) | TI–Raleigh | 115h 50' 54" |
| 2 | Alain Meslet (FRA) | Gitane–Campagnolo | + 15' 07" |
| 3 | Pierre-Raymond Villemiane (FRA) | Gitane–Campagnolo | + 24' 18" |
| 4 | Enrique Martínez Heredia (ESP) | Kas–Campagnolo | + 35' 06" |
| 5 | Henk Lubberding (NED) | TI–Raleigh | + 49' 49" |
| 6 | Paul Wellens (BEL) | Frisol–Thirion–Gazelle | + 55' 48" |
| 7 | José Enrique Cima (ESP) | Kas–Campagnolo | + 1h 04' 06" |
| 8 | Eugène Plet (FRA) | Lejeune–BP | + 1h 13' 26" |
| 9 | Michel Le Denmat (FRA) | Lejeune–BP | + 1h 32' 22" |
| 10 | Willy Singer (FRG) | Bianchi–Campagnolo | + 1h 55' 54" |
| Rank | Rider | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pierre-Raymond Villemiane (FRA) | Gitane–Campagnolo | 73 |
| 2 | Giacinto Santambrogio (ITA) | Bianchi–Campagnolo | 49 |
| 3 | Jacques Esclassan (FRA) | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | 32 |
| 4 | Jean-Pierre Danguillaume (FRA) | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | 16 |
| 5 | Roland Berland (FRA) | Gitane–Campagnolo | 9 |
| 6 | Gerrie Knetemann (NED) | TI–Raleigh | 9 |
| 7 | Joop Zoetemelk (NED) | Miko–Mercier–Vivagel | 8 |
| 8 | Wilfried Wesemael (BEL) | Frisol–Thirion–Gazelle | 7 |
| 9 | José Martins (POR) | Kas–Campagnolo | 8 |
| 10 | Fernando Mendes (POR) | Teka | 6 |
| Rank | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | TI–Raleigh | 347h 41' 19" |
| 2 | Miko–Mercier–Vivagel | + 13' 29" |
| 3 | Kas–Campagnolo | + 20' 45" |
| 4 | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | + 25' 02" |
| 5 | Teka | + 56' 19" |
| 6 | Fiat France | + 1h 08' 05" |
| 7 | Lejeune–BP | + 1h 14' 06" |
| 8 | Gitane–Campagnolo | + 1h 28' 30" |
| 9 | Frisol–Thirion–Gazelle | + 3h 05' 34" |
| 10 | Bianchi–Campagnolo | + 3h 54' 06" |
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peugeot–Esso–Michelin | 820 |
| 2 | TI–Raleigh | 966 |
| 3 | Miko–Mercier–Vivagel | 1326 |
| 4 | Gitane–Campagnolo | 1384 |
| 5 | Teka | 1559 |
| 6 | Fiat France | 1768 |
| 7 | Kas–Campagnolo | 2013 |
| 8 | Frisol–Thirion–Gazelle | 2141 |
| 9 | Bianchi–Campagnolo | 2182 |
| 10 | Lejeune–BP | 2227 |
Due to the relentless pace set by the top tier riders only 53 riders were able to finish the 1977 Tour de France. Never since have so few riders finished a Tour de France and the previous time fewer riders finished was the1950 Tour de France when 51 riders finished. In years before and after this Tour riders like Merckx, Hinault, Zoetemelk, Van Impe, Thévenet,Luis Ocaña andLaurent Fignon set such a high pace during mountain stages that as many as half the riders in the main field would have been expelled from the race, but exemptions were made and the time limit was altered to allow them to continue the Tour. No such exemptions were given in the 1977 edition.
Due to doping infractions by another rider Meslet would go from 11th to 10th place overall,Raymond Delisle finished 9th, Zoetemelk ended up in 8th overall because of the ten minute penalty, which impressively enough would be the worst he would ever finish until his 13th participation in 1983.Michel Laurent moved up into 7th place overall as Merckx would finish his finalGrand Tour a career worst 6th, with it also being one of the few Grand Tours he entered that he did not win.
The immediate aftermath of this Tour was that it was the end of the Merckx era and the last time Thévenet and Van Impe would be in legitimate contention of winning the Tour de France while the1978 Tour de France would be the beginning of three consecutive years whereJoop Zoetemelk andBernard Hinault would basically race against one another while everybody else fought for third place.
Like Meslet this would be the finest TourDietrich Thurau would ever race finishing in 5th place overall. WhileKlaus-Peter Thaler would wear the yellow jersey in 1978 the next German to wear the yellow jersey and be in contention of winning theTour de France would not come for nearly two decades withJan Ullrich.
SpaniardFrancisco Galdós earned fourth place overall as he found a way to stay with the elite riders every single time it mattered. Due to a tough breakLucien Van Impe finished third and because he caught some breaks and wanted it more than anyoneHennie Kuiper made it a two-way race between himself and Thévenet by the end of the Tour.
Hennie Kuiper would never win the Tour and the 1977 Tour was the closest he ever came, although he did finish second one additional time in the 1980 Tour. After retiring in 1988 he would go on to complete many more Tours from a team car and would work in public relations. In the early 1990s he was worked for Team Motorola and would end up giving a youngLance Armstrong very excited instructions in his formative professional years. After leaving Motorola in 1996 he would be hired by TeamRabobank.
Media related toTour de France 1977 at Wikimedia Commons
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