Early years Ocaña was born in
Priego,
Cuenca,
Spain but his family moved to
Mont-de-Marsan (
Landes,
France) in 1957. Ocaña took up racing with a club in Mont-de-Marsan and began his professional career in 1968 with the
Spanish Fagor team, becoming Spanish champion that year. The following year he won the prologue and two time trials, the mountains classification as well as finishing second in the
Vuelta a España. In 1969, he won the
Catalan Cycling Week. In 1970, Ocaña signed with the
French team
Bic. In the 1970
Vuelta a España, he battled with
Agustín Tamames, losing the leader's jersey to him on the 13th stage. Ocaña performed well in the time-trial on the final day putting himself back into the Gold jersey as he won his first Grand Tour with an advantage of 1:18 over Tamames. The Spanish newspaper Dicen said Ocaña was "the best time-trialist that Spanish cycling has ever had". In the
1970 Tour de France, Ocaña won the stage to
Puy-de-Dôme and finished 31st in the Tour.
1971 Tour de France Before the Tour de France, Ocaña finished third behind
Eddy Merckx in
Paris–Nice and second behind Merckx in the
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. On the uphill finish of stage eight with four kilometres to go, Ocaña launched the decisive move and broke away from the favourites for that year's Tour, which included Merckx. He succeeded in a 15-second gain on Merckx but built on that the following day. Then on stage 11 to
Orcières-Merlette, Ocaña rode himself into the yellow jersey with eight minutes over Merckx. After a rest day, Merckx cut that lead to 7 minutes and in the
Pyrenees, on the
Col de Menté, Merckx attacked as he descended the mountain. Merckx lost control and skidded into a low wall. Ocaña could not avoid Merckx and fell himself. Merckx was up quickly and sped away. Ocaña struggled to release his cleats from the toe clips and was struck by the pursuing
Joop Zoetemelk. The leader of the general classification lay on the ground screaming with pain. He was taken by helicopter to the hospital in
Saint-Gaudens. He recovered but his 1971 Tour dreams had come to an end. The following day Merckx refused to wear the yellow jersey, in tribute to Ocaña. There is a memorial at the scene of the accident on the western side of the Col de Menté in the Pyrenees (at ). The following year, 1972, Merckx had intended on not participating in the
1972 Tour de France in order to ride the
Vuelta a España for the first time, but due to critics saying that Merckx only won the Tour because of Ocaña's fall, Merckx decided to ride. There was speculation of a duel. Ocaña had won the
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the national championship. In the Pyrenees, Ocaña repeatedly attacked Merckx without success, before withdrawing with bronchitis. In 1973, Merckx decided to ride the
Vuelta a España and
Giro d'Italia. It was the first time that Merckx contested the
Vuelta a España and that year he would not be contesting the Tour de France. Ocaña battled Merckx in the race with
Bernard Thévenet also present. In the end Ocaña finished second, almost 4 minutes behind Merckx.
1973 Winner of the Tour de France Because Ocaña had only finished one of the four previous editions of the Tour de France that he had started, he was not considered a favourite for overall victory. Merckx, who was not competing, had picked
José Manuel Fuente,
Joop Zoetemelk and
Raymond Poulidor for the podium. Indeed, Zoetemelk and Poulidor had finished first and second after the prologue while Ocaña crashed during the first stage when a dog ran into the peloton. However, on the third stage, Ocaña and his team distanced his rivals. The stage began in
Roubaix and when the peloton went over cobblestones at Querenaing, Ocaña and four teammates together with six others, attacked, and gained five minutes at one point, although the chasing group reduced this to two and a half minutes at the finish. However, Fuente finished seven minutes back. Ocaña won the first mountain stage and took the yellow jersey, while Thévenet won the second mountain stage.
L'Equipe newspaper predicted a duel. However, on the third mountain stage, Ocaña delivered a crushing defeat to his rivals. Fuente attacked early on the
Col du Télégraphe and a group of favourites was established. On the following climb of the
Col du Galibier, Ocaña led. After the descent, Ocaña and Fuente had a minute on Thévenet, while the next group were five minutes and 30 seconds behind. Fuente suffered a flat tire and Ocaña won by 52 seconds over Fuente, almost seven minutes over Thévenet & Martinez, and 20 minutes & 24 seconds over Zoetemelk, Van Impe and Poulidor. Ocaña then led the
general classification by nine minutes over Fuente, ten minutes on Thevénet, with Zoetemelk fifth, over 23 minutes behind. Ocaña won the last individual time trial and also the mountain stage to
Puy-de-Dôme, eventually winning the race with 15 minutes over
Bernard Thévenet. He also won the
combativity award. After his win, Ocaña declared that after the
1974 Tour de France, he wanted to try the hour record. jersey.
Post-Tour career After his win in the Tour de France, Ocaña finished third and won the bronze medal in the world championship road race. He also won the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco in 1973 and finished fourth in the 1974
Vuelta a España, won by Fuente. Ocaña was unable to defend his
Tour de France win in 1974 due to an injury sustained during the Midi-Libre. He finished fourth again in the 1975 Vuelta a España. In 1976, he was back to top form and finished third in
Paris–Nice and second overall in the
Vuelta a España, a minute behind José Pesarrodona. . Ocaña retired at the end of 1977 after finishing 25th in the
1975 Tour de France. He had won 110 races including nine stages of the Tour de France. He retired to his vineyard in 1977. It is said that despite their rivalry on the road, Merckx organised for a Belgian distributor to order a sizeable quantity of wine from Ocaña's ailing vineyard. == Death ==