1970 Tour de France
Route of the 1970 Tour de France
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| Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dates | 27 June – 19 July | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stages | 23 + Prologue, including five split stages | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Distance | 4,254 km (2,643 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Winning time | 119h 31' 49" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Winner |
 Eddy Merckx (BEL)
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(Faema–Faemino) |
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| Second |
 Joop Zoetemelk (NED)
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(Mars–Flandria) | |
| Third |
 Gösta Pettersson (SWE)
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(Ferretti) | |
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Points |
Walter Godefroot (BEL)
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(Salvarani) |
| Mountains |
Eddy Merckx (BEL)
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(Faema–Faemino) | |
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Combination |
Eddy Merckx (BEL)
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(Faema–Faemino) |
| Sprints |
 Cyrille Guimard (FRA)
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(Fagor) | |
| Team | Salvarani | ||
The 1970 Tour de France was the 57th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours (Giro d'Italia Vuelta a Espana). It took place between 27 June and 19 July, with 23 stages covering a distance of 4,254 km (2,643 mi). It was the second victory for Belgian Eddy Merckx, who also won the mountains classification, and finished second in the points classification behind Walter Godefroot.
The Tour de France started with 15 teams, of 10 cyclists each, from five different countries. A few days before the Tour started, it became known that Paul Gutty had failed a doping test when he won the French national road championship. Gutty was removed from his Frimatic team, and replaced by Rene Grelin.
The teams entering the race were:
After his dominating victory in the previous year, Merckx was the major favourite. The main competition was expected from Luis Ocaña and Bernard Thévenet. Early in the race, 86 journalists predicted who would be in the top five of the Tour. 85 of them expected Merckx to be in the top five; Ocana was named by 78, Poulidor by 73. Merckx had already won important races in 1970, including Paris–Roubaix, Paris–Nice, the Giro d'Italia and the Belgian national road championship. Luis Ocaña, who had won the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the Vuelta a España, suffered from bronchitis, but still started the Tour, unable to seriously challenge Merckx.
The 1970 Tour de France started on 27 June, and had no rest days. After the financial success of the split stages in the 1969 Tour de France, even more split stages were used in the 1970 Tour.
The big favourite Merckx won the opening prologue, but he decided not to try to keep this leading position during the entire race. In the next stage, Merckx' team chased back all the escapes, so the stage ended in a bunch sprint, and Merckx kept the lead. In the second stage, a few cyclists escaped, and two of Merckx' team mates, Italo Zilioli and Georges Vandenberghe, joined the escape. Merckx' team mate Zilioli was ranked highest amongst the escaped cyclists, and none of them were considered competitors for the general classification, so Guillaume Driessens, Merckx's team leader, allowed the escape to work, and told Zilioli and Vandenberghe to give their best. Merckx however chased his own team mates. The group stayed away, Zilioli won the sprint and became the new leader, 4 seconds ahead of Merckx. After the stage, Merckx was angry at his team leader, because he had allowed Zilioli to "steal" Merckx' yellow jersey, but Driessens explained him that the other teams had spent energy to chase Zilioli, and the argument was over. Merckx team won the team time trial, and controlled the next stages, keeping Zilioli the leader with Merckx in second place.
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