The finale of the 17th stage of the 2014 Tour de France will take place on Pla d' Adet on 23 July. It is the tenth time that the mountain in the French Pyrenees has been climbed. The Tour of France stopped there for the first time in 1974.
At the finish in 1976, Lucien van Impe not only celebrates his stage win, but also lays the foundation for his first and only overall victory in the Tour de France. He surprises his toughest rival Joop Zoetemelk with an early attack, the danger of which the Dutchman recognises far too late.
The 14th stage to Pla d'Adet in 1976 is the penultimate difficult mountain stage and, with four difficult climbs, the queen stage.
The outcome of the Tour de France that year was open. Serial winner Eddy Merckx had cancelled his participation; the previous year's winner Bernard Thévenet and the Spanish climber Luis Ocaña lacked form. Joop Zoetemelk is the clear favourite for many experts, as he has already finished the tour in second place twice before.
Frenchman Raymond Delisse wears the yellow jersey at the start of stage 14. A breakaway attempt in the mountains two days earlier earned him the maillot jaune. Zoetemelk won two stages in the Alps, but is six seconds behind Lucien van Impe in third place in the classification.
The Belgian van Impe is regarded as a proven climber, but in previous years the mountain classification seemed more important to him than the overall classification - after all, he won it in 1971, 1972 and 1973.
The stage runs close to the Spanish border, which is why Luis Ocaña makes an early attack on the first climb. The favourites let him go - the Spaniard is already far behind in the classification.
Then Lucien van Impe decides to ride away. His sports director Cyrille Guimard had chosen this stage and asked his protégé to go on the offensive early.
Raymond Delisse in the yellow jersey and above all Joop Zoetemelk did not react this time either. Zoetemelk is later quoted as saying that he thought van Impe was only after the mountain points at the top of the climb. Van Impe, however, pulls away and reaches the breakaway group around Luis Ocana.
The group works well together, the lead grows and only on the penultimate climb of the stage, the Col du Peyresoude, does Zoetemelk realise that he has to do something, otherwise he risks losing the Tour de France.
Delisse in the yellow jersey is no help to him. He pays tribute to his attack two days earlier and is unable to support the Dutchman in the chase.
Van Impe and Ocaña are still in pairs at the start of the 10.7 kilometre long final climb to the Pla d'Adet ski station, but Zoetemelk chases them down completely alone.
The Belgian is the strongest on this day, successfully breaking away from Ocaña and finally reaching the finish as a soloist.
Zoetemelk fights hard, even catches Ocaña and finishes second on the stage, but loses 3:12 minutes to his compatriot and thus the Tour de France. In Paris he is 4:14 minutes behind.
Lucien van Impe is best known as the six-time mountain king of the Tour de France. He missed out on the mountain classification by one point in 1976, but achieved a much greater triumph: overall victory in the Tour de France.
From then on, Belgians began to yearn for the next Tour winner from their country, a yearning that continues to this day.
In 1981, Lucien van Impe repeated his stage win at Pla d'Adet and once again finished second in the Tour de France that year.
For Joop Zoetemelk, it was another second place in the Tour de France in 1976, after 1970 and 1971. He only finished second in 1978 and 1979 and already had the reputation of never being able to win the Tour when he reached Paris as the winner in 1980. He finished second again in 1982. He took part in the Tour de France a total of 16 times, reaching Paris each time.
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