Luis Ocaña - Fall Apart (Death In June) скачать в хорошем качестве

Luis Ocaña - Fall Apart (Death In June)

Almost ten years have passed since the last video. The return of Neofolk cycling will be in remembrance of perhaps the most significant and definitely the most gut wrenching and unbearable near-miss in all of cycling: Luis Ocaña and his historic quest for the yellow jersey in 1971. Ocaña entered the 1971 edition of the Tour de France as an outsider. He had won the Vuelta Espana the previous year and was among the best climbers and time trialists in the world, but in reality, the outcome of the Tour de France was determined before it even started. By 1971 Eddy Merckx had the entire world of cycling in a stranglehold. This was Merckx at his absolute peak. A year during which he won 45% of all races he entered. It wasn't a matter of whether Merckx would win or not, it was a matter of whether someone would even be remotely close to him when all was said and done. And when all was said and done, no one was. When the race reached Paris, Merckx stood on top spot of the podium, nearly ten minutes ahead of Joop Zoetemelk, who finished second behind Merckx just as he had done the previous year. It wasn't the last time Zoetemelk would finish the race in second place, and Merckx would continue to occupy the top spot of the podium of any race he entered for years to come. Looking at the outcome of the race when it was over, it would seem like Merckx' victory had been as much of a formality as it had seemed it would be when the race started. But the result sheets do not reflect what actually happened on the way to Paris. The result sheets do not contain Luis Ocaña. The race started as one would have expected. Merckx and his Molteni team won the team time trial. Merckx took the lead early on and solidified it as the race approached the Alps. But when the race hit the first mountain stage, the pre-written manuscript faltered. Ocaña was able to respond to Merckx' attacks and rode to his first stage victory of the race atop Puy de Dome in Massif Central. The first day in the Alps didn't fare any better Merckx, as he was distanced with over a minute due to a puncture. Merckx started the final stage of the Alps behind Ocaña. The yellow jersey was now his to chase, but his troubles had only just begun. The stage to Orcières-Merlette was to be Ocaña's masterpiece. He rode to his second stage victory with a 60-kilometer solo ride in the French Alps. Merckx led a small group of favorites across the finish line nearly nine minutes after Ocana had won the stage. He now had a gap of ten minutes to Merckx in the overall classification. After the stage Merckx let reporters know that while he wouldn't give up, he had now lost the race. Ocana had done what seemed impossible. He had dethroned Eddy Merckx. Ocaña gave Merckx no reason to believe that he had any chance of taking back the lost minutes. Merckx won the time trial on stage 13, but Ocaña was a close second and lost by only 11 seconds. In the Pyrenees, Ocaña would follow all of Merckx' attacks, but as the two crossed the summit of Col de Menté, a thunderous hailstorm would form over the Pyrenees, rendering the descent from Col de Menté nearly impossible to traverse. The storm lasted for just ten minutes, but when Merckx reached the bottom of the descent, he was alone, headed towards a comfortable Tour de France victory, while Ocaña was left gasping for air in the roadside gravel of the Col de Menté on a day where the Gods favored the Flemish. The race was over for Ocaña. It would take him two years to fully recover, but in what would be the last good year of his career, he returned to the Tour de France in 1973 to claim the overall victory in a race that Merckx had opted to skip in order to win the Vuelta and Giro instead.