Zoetemelk were able to go with him. The time gained over the rest of the contenders was substantial as Merckx took the stage win with Pintens and Tosello crossing the line right behind him and Zoetemelk pulling up and crossing two seconds later. Zoetemelk was now in 2nd place at +2:51, Pintens rose to 3rd at +3:55. The rest of the field was considerably distanced with Gösta Pettersson rising from outside the top 10 all the way up to 4th place at +7:44 because he finished within a group including Francisco Galdós and Johny Schleck who themselves put several minutes of time into the other contenders. 3rd place Pintens was initially riding for Herman Van Springel, who was now in 5th place at +8:02. Zoetemelk said that he would focus on defending his second place, because he thought Merckx was better than the rest of the world. Stage 11, a split stage, was the 16th stage of the race and it began with a brief ITT just under ten kilometers. Merckx won with Linares, Zoetemelk and Charly Grosskost tying for 2nd at +0:09. 11B ended in a sprint with Basso taking his second stage win ahead of Godefroot and Janssen, all of whom were competing with Merckx in the Points Competition. Stage 12 was a mountainous stage with five notable climbs and Merckx won the stage with only Luis Zubero finishing within +2:00. He held the mountains jersey as well as the overall lead over Zoetemelk by just over six minutes, Pettersson by ten minutes followed by Van Springel, Poulidor and Zilioli. Stage 13 Andrés Gandarias claimed the Mountains jersey from Merckx early in the stage and Primo Mori managed to stay away for the stage win. Merckx crossed the line with Zubero, Van Impe and Godefroot who kept his hold on the green jersey as Merckx added another +0:38 to his lead over 2nd and 3rd place. After the 13th stage, Merckx heard that Vicenze Giacotto, who started the Faema team around Merckx, had died of a heart attack. Stage 14 Merckx pushed himself to the breaking point to win on Mont Ventoux. This was the first time the Tour returned there since the Death of Tom Simpson. He won the stage, reclaimed the lead in the Mountains and Points classifications and now only Zoetemelk was within +10:00. After he won this stage, Merckx briefly lost consciousness. The next