1959 Tour de France

The teams entering the race were:[1]

The French team included Jacques Anquetil, Louison Bobet, Raphael Géminiani and Roger Riviere, who were all considered possible Tour winners.[2] This also posed a problem, as they did all want to be team captain, and refused to work for each other.[3]

The Spanish team was headed by Federico Bahamontes, who in previous years did not care for flat stages and time trials, and only tried to win the mountains classification. In the 1959 season, Bahamontes had Fausto Coppi as manager, and Coppi convinced Bahamontes to focus on the general classification.[3]

The defending champion Charly Gaul was again placed in a mixed team of Luxembourgian and Dutch cyclists, and expected little support.[3] The Italian team did not include Vito Favero and Gastone Nencini, who had performed well in the 1958 Tour. Their team captain was Ercole Baldini, winner of the 1958 Giro d'Italia, but he was not expected to be able to compete against Gaul, Bahamontes and Anquetil.[3]

Of the cyclists in the French regional teams, Henri Anglade was the most notable. He was included in the Centre-Midi team.

The cyclists were represented by agents, who negotiated for the prices in post-tour criteriums. There were two major agents: Daniel Dousset, who represented Anquetil, Rivière and Bahamontes, and Piel Poulidor, who represented Anglade. This made it more important for Anquetil to help Bahamontes than Anglade.[3]

The 1959 Tour de France started on 25 June in Mulhouse, and had two rest days, in Bayonne and Saint-Étienne.[4] The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,770 m (9,090 ft) at the summit of the Col de l'Iseran mountain pass on stage 18.[5][6]

Stage characteristics and winners[7][4][8][9]

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
1	25 June	Mulhouse to Metz	238 km (148 mi)		Plain stage	André Darrigade (FRA)
2	26 June	Metz to Namur (Belgium)	234 km (145 mi)		Plain stage	Vito Favero (ITA)
3	27 June	Namur (Belgium) to Roubaix	217 km (135 mi)		Plain stage	Robert Cazala (FRA)
4	28 June	Roubaix to Rouen	230 km (140 mi)		Plain stage	Dino Bruni (ITA)
5	29 June	Rouen to Rennes	286 km (178 mi)		Plain stage	Jean Graczyk (FRA)
6	30 June	Blain to Nantes	45 km (28 mi)		Individual time trial	Roger Rivière (FRA)
7	1 July	Nantes to La Rochelle	190 km (120 mi)		Plain stage	Roger Hassenforder (FRA)
8	2 July	La Rochelle to Bordeaux	201 km (125 mi)		Plain stage	Michel Dejouhannet (FRA)
9	3 July	Bordeaux to Bayonne	207 km (129 mi)		Plain stage	Marcel Queheille (FRA)
	4 July	Bayonne			Rest day
10	5 July	Bayonne to Bagnères-de-Bigorre	235 km (146 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Marcel Janssens (BEL)
11	6 July	Bagnères-de-Bigorre to Saint-Gaudens	119 km (74 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	André Darrigade (FRA)
12	7 July	Saint-Gaudens to Albi	184 km (114 mi)		Plain stage	Rolf Graf (SUI)
13	8 July	Albi to Aurillac	219 km (136 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Henry Anglade (FRA)
14	9 July	Aurillac to Clermont-Ferrand	231 km (144 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	André Le Dissez (FRA)
15	10 July	Puy de Dôme	12 km (7.5 mi)		Mountain time trial	Federico Bahamontes (ESP)
16	11 July	Clermont-Ferrand to Saint-Étienne	210 km (130 mi)		Plain stage	Dino Bruni (ITA)
	12 July	Saint-Étienne			Rest day
17	13 July	Saint-Étienne to Grenoble	197 km (122 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Charly Gaul (LUX)
18	14 July	Grenoble to Saint-Vincent (Italy)	243 km (151 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Ercole Baldini (ITA)
19	15 July	Saint-Vincent (Italy) to Annecy	251 km (156 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Rolf Graf (SUI)
20	16 July	Annecy to Chalon-sur-Saône	202 km (126 mi)		Plain stage	Brian Robinson (GBR)
21	17 July	Seurre to Dijon	69 km (43 mi)		Individual time trial	Roger Rivière (FRA)
22	18 July	Dijon to Paris	331 km (206 mi)		Plain stage	Joseph Groussard (FRA)
	Total		4,358 km (2,708 mi)[10]

The peloton during stage nine between Bordeaux and Bayonne

During the Tour, a package of strychnine, addressed to one of the teams, was intercepted by the Tour doctor.[11]

Like in the previous years, Darrigade won the first stage.[3] In the third stage, a group of 13 cyclists escaped, none of them considered favourites for the overall victory. The favourites let them escape, knowing that they would win enough time back in the mountains, and the group won more than 10 minutes on the rest. Robert Cazala from the French national team became the new leader.[3]

Anglade was riding well in the first stages. Because of an escape in stage 7, he gained a few minutes on the top favourites.[3] In the ninth stage, the Belgian cyclists broke away, and the French team followed them. Cazala was not able to follow them, and he lost the lead. Eddy Pauwels became the new leader[3] Pauwels lost the lead in the tenth stage, and regional Michel Vermeulin became the new leader.[3]

After stage 12, Anglade was in fifth place in the general classification,[12] the first of the favourites for the overall victory. In the thirteenth stage, Anglade attacked and won the stage.[2] He jumped to second place in the general classification.

The French team director then concentrated the strategy on beating Anglade, because he thought Anglade was the main threat.[2] The fifteenth stage was an individual mountain time trial, won by Spaniard Bahamontes. Bahamontes climbed to the second place in the general classification, only 4 seconds behind Jos Hoevenaers, the last man from the escaped group in stage 3 to stay high in the general classification. Eddy Pauwels was in third place, while Anglade was still in fourth place, only 43 seconds behind Hoevenaers.[3]

In the sixteenth stage, Pauwels was in the escaped group, and won enough time to take over the lead in the general classification. In the seventeenth stage, Bahamontes and Gaul escaped. Gaul won the stage, but Bahamontes took the leading position.[2]

The eighteenth stage would determine the outcome of the race. Bahamontes was leading, but his teammates had used a lot of energy the day before. The French national team was expected to attack.[3] In the eighteenth stage, Gaul was the first one to attack, and reached the top of the Galibier first, but later the other riders got back to him. On the way down from the Iseran, Bahamontes and Gaul were left behind, and Anquetil and Rivière were expected to increase their efforts, such that Bahamontes and Gaul would not be able to get back to them. Anquetil and Rivière did not want to assist each other and did nothing, so Bahamontes and Gaul were able to get back. Anquetil and Rivière then were left behind. On the last climb, Anglade attacked. Baldini and Gaul could follow, but Bahamontes could not, and at some moment was five minutes behind. This made Anglade the virtual race leader, which was against the wishes of the national team. Anquetil and Rivière then reached Bahamontes, and helped him to get back to Anglade.[2]

The only risk for Bahamontes left was the time trial in stage 21. At the start, Bahamontes was leading by 5'40". In the time trial, Anglade won 1'39" back on Bahamontes, but that was not enough.[2] When the Tour ended in the Parc des Princes velodrome in Paris, the French crowd booed the French national team, because they did not allow Anglade the victory.[2]

The time that each cyclist required to finish each stage was recorded, and these times were added together for the general classification. If a cyclist had received a time bonus, it was subtracted from this total; all time penalties were added to this total. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey.[13]

The points classification was calculated differently than in the years before. The winner of a stage received 100 points, down to 1 point for the 25th cyclist. André Darrigade took the lead by winning the first stage, and remained the leader for the rest of the race.

The mountains classification was calculated by adding the points given to cyclists for reaching the highest point in a climb first.[14]

The team classification was calculated as the sum of the daily team classifications, and the daily team classification was calculated by adding the times in the stage result of the best three cyclists per team.[15] It was won by the Belgian team.

In addition, there was a combativity award given after each stage to the cyclist considered most combative. The decision was made by a jury composed of journalists who gave points. The cyclist with the most points from votes in all stages led the combativity classification.[16] Gérard Saint won this classification, and was given overall the super-combativity award.[4] The Souvenir Henri Desgrange was given to the first rider to pass the memorial to Tour founder Henri Desgrange near the summit of the Col du Galibier on stage 18. This prize was won by Charly Gaul.[17]

Classification leadership and awards by stage[18]

Stage	Winner	General classification	Points classification	Mountains classification[lower-alpha 1]	Team classification	Combativity		Bad luck award
						Award	Classification
1	André Darrigade	André Darrigade	André Darrigade	Louis Bergaud	France	Louis Bergaud	Louis Bergaud	André Le Dissez
2	Vito Favero					Jean-Claude Annaert		Otto Altweg
3	Robert Cazala	Robert Cazala		Louis Bergaud/Eddy Pauwels		Eddy Pauwels	Eddy Pauwels	Jean Robic
4	Dino Bruni					Piet van Est	Piet van Est	Jean Anastasi
5	Jean Graczyk					Francis Pipelin		no award
6	Roger Rivière					Gérard Saint		Louis Bergaud
7	Roger Hassenforder					Jos Hoevenaers		Gérard Saint
8	Michel Dejouhannet					Seamus Elliott		Mathias Löder
9	Marcel Queheille	Eddy Pauwels			Belgium	Marcel Queheille		Raphaël Géminiani
10	Marcel Janssens	Michel Vermeulin		Armand Desmet		Gérard Saint	Gérard Saint	Guillaume Van Tongerloo
11	André Darrigade			Federico Bahamontes		Valentin Huot		Jean Robic
12	Rolf Graf					Manuel Busto		Félix Lebuhotel
13	Henry Anglade	Jos Hoevenaers				Federico Bahamontes	Henry Anglade	Jean Dotto
14	André Le Dissez					André Le Dissez	Gérard Saint	Max Schellenberg
15	Federico Bahamontes					Victor Sutton	Henry Anglade	Max Schellenberg
16	Dino Bruni	Eddy Pauwels				no award	Gérard Saint	André Le Dissez
17	Charly Gaul	Federico Bahamontes				Charly Gaul		Jef Planckaert
18	Ercole Baldini					Michele Gismondi		Adolf Christian
19	Rolf Graf					Rolf Graf		Carmelo Morales
20	Brian Robinson					Brian Robinson		Thadeus Wierucki
21	Roger Rivière					Jan Adriaensens		Rolf Graf
22	Joseph Groussard					no award		Roberto Falaschi
Final		Federico Bahamontes	André Darrigade	Federico Bahamontes	Belgium	Gérard Saint		Seamus Elliott

• Augendre, Jacques (2016). Guide historique [Historical guide] (PDF). Tour de France (in French). Paris: Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
• Dimeo, Paul (2007). A History of Drug Use in Sport: 1876–1976: Beyond Good and Evil. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-35772-2.
• McGann, Bill; McGann, Carol (2006). The Story of the Tour de France: 1903–1964. 1. Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59858-180-5.
• Nauright, John; Parrish, Charles (2012). Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice. 2. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-300-2.
• van den Akker, Pieter (2018). Tour de France Rules and Statistics: 1903–2018. Self-published. ISBN 978-1-79398-080-9.

Media related to 1959 Tour de France at Wikimedia Commons