The intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction1 has not been extensively applied to the synthesis of macrocyclic rings because of problems related to regio-and exo-endo selectivity. 2 In the course of studies3 that explored the reactivity of R, β-unsaturated acetals in the presence of an equimolar mixture of butyllithium and potassium tert-butoxide (Schlosser's reagent LICKOR), 4 we have developed a method to transform crotonaldehyde diethyl acetal and ...