 The penultimate circuit saw the chase group , led by Merckx , shrink to five members and Thévenet 's lead dwindle to 35 " . The riders that remained in the chase group were Van Springel , Poulidor , Mariano Martínez , Merckx , and Giacinto Santambrogio . Van Springel was dropped by the Merckx group before Thévenet was caught and passed on the final climb of Mount Royal , with around 7 km ( 4 @.@ 3 mi ) remaining . The chase group led by Merckx broke into two groups of two , with Poulidor and Merckx riding together and Martinez and Santambrogio behind , together . The split was caused by a move made by Merckx with close to 5 km ( 3 @.@ 1 mi ) left . With two hundred meters remaining in the race , Merckx attacked and managed to open up a two @-@ second gap between himself and Poulidor as he crossed the finish line to win the race . 
