1973 Tour of Flanders

The 57th running of the Tour of Flanders cycling race in Belgium was held on Sunday 1 April 1973. Belgian Eric Leman won the classic ahead of Freddy Maertens and Eddy Merckx.[1][2] The race started in Ghent and finished for the first time in Meerbeke (Ninove). 37 out of 174 riders arrived.

Race details
Dates1 April 1973
Stages1
Distance263 km (163.4 mi)
Winning time6h 17'
Results
  Winner  Eric Leman (BEL) (Peugeot-BP)
  Second  Freddy Maertens (BEL) (Flandria-Shimano)
  Third  Eddy Merckx (BEL) (Molteni)

Course

Cycling icon Eddy Merckx was the pre-race favourite, but despite several attempts, he failed to distance Leman, Maertens and De Geest on the Muur van Geraardsbergen and the run-in to the finish. In a four-man sprint Eric Leman narrowly beat Freddy Maertens. Merckx was third.[3] Leman became the third rider to win the Tour of Flanders three times, equalling the previous record of Achiel Buysse and Fiorenzo Magni. [4]

Climbs

There were six categorized climbs:

Results
Cyclist Team Time
1  Eric Leman (BEL) Peugeot-BP 6h 17' 00"
2  Freddy Maertens (BEL) Flandria-Shimano s.t.
3  Eddy Merckx (BEL) Molteni s.t.
4  Willy De Geest (BEL) Rokado s.t.
5  Joop Zoetemelk (NED) Gitane + 45"
6  Walter Godefroot (BEL) Flandria-Shimano + 51"
7  Frans Verbeeck (BEL) Watneys-Maes s.t.
8  Herman Van Springel (BEL) Rokado s.t.
9  Patrick Sercu (BEL) Brooklyn + 1'20"
10  Willy In't Ven (BEL) Molteni s.t.
gollark: (Some) people have been culturally whatevered into assuming that that sort of thing is necessary.
gollark: People do it all the time.
gollark: How would they be *lost*? Don't they have GTech™ positioning system receivers?
gollark: #86?
gollark: Okay.

References
  1. Vanwalleghem, Rik (1991), De Ronde van Vlaanderen, Pinguin, Belgium, ISBN 90-73322-02-2, p168
  2. McGann, Bill; McGann, Carol. "1973 Ronde van Vlaanderen results". BikeRaceInfo. Cherokee Village, AR: McGann Publishing. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  3. Vanwalleghem, Rik (1991), De Ronde van Vlaanderen, Pinguin, Belgium, ISBN 90-73322-02-2, p172
  4. Vanwalleghem, Rik (1991), De Ronde van Vlaanderen, Pinguin, Belgium, ISBN 90-73322-02-2, p169-173

Further reading


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