I thought at first you were kidding about "Speedwell's" instablity causing Ocana to crash in the 1971 TdF, but now I realize you're serious! That's a bit like saying "Raleigh 753 frames" must be unstable because Jan Raas crashed descending the Poggio, or Cannondale has a problem at high speed because Cipo's leadout man crashed in a sprint. LOL!
Accounts I've read about that disasterous Stage 14 mention water flowing down the Col de Mente was sometimes 6" deep or deeper, leaving brakes hydroplaning and useless. Riders were sliding downhill on their shoes, stradling their top tube, in an attempt to maintain balance. Ocana "was without brakes". The section where he crashed is EXTREMELY STEEP, as you can see in the video. (It may have been Joop Zoetemelk who crashed into Ocana... I can't remember, but will look it up tonight.)
Jose-Manuel Fuente won that stage, 6'21" ahead of Merckx.
There's a good shot of Ocana in agony after the impact at:
http://www.step.es/
Note that he is in the Yellow Jersey - he was leading Merckx by 7'23" at the beginning of the day, with three mountain stages remaining.
There's more on the Spanish-language page dedicated to him with other good
pictures at:
http://www.step.es/
Merckx was lucky to make it through that turn. Seems to me he DID crash one turn earlier, or perhaps one turn later.
Luis Ocana went on to win TdF in 1973, a race which Merckx missed.
Aldo Ross
sunny, but 45+ MPH winds in Excello, Ohio
> It is one of those points that will always be debated. Perhaps the
Speedwell
> was a bit less stable. Probably Merckx was a bit more skilled, and almost
> certainly he was more focused and determined to win - they didn't call him
"the
> Cannibal" for nothing. BTW, was this crash in a Tour after Ocana had won
the
> Tour, or did he come back from the crash to win the Tour afterwards?
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos