The 1956 Tour de France was the 43rd edition of the
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
, taking place from 5 to 28 July. It consisted of 22 stages over .
There was no previous Tour winner competing for the 1956 Tour, which had only previously happened in
1903 and
1927. An unknown rider from a regional team,
Roger Walkowiak
Roger Walkowiak (; 2 March 1927 – 6 February 2017) was a French road bicycle racer who won the 1956 Tour de France. He was a professional rider from 1950 until 1960. He died on 6 February 2017 at the age of 89.
The 1956 Tour de France
From 19 ...
on the Northeast-Center French team, ended up winning the Tour. Many Tour fans dismissed the win as being lucky or unworthy at the time, which Walkowiak took hard; this made him not often speak of his win.
The Tour was ridden at the fastest average speed so far, over 36 km/h. Walkowiak became only the second rider, after
Firmin Lambot
Firmin Lambot (; 14 March 1886 – 19 January 1964) was a Belgian bicycle racer who twice won the Tour de France.
Born in the small town of Florennes,The Bicycle, UK, 26 March 1952, p6 Lambot worked as a saddler. He worked 12 hours a day, star ...
in the
1922 Tour de France, to win without taking a single stage.
Innovations
In the previous years, a flat tyre had to be repaired, but from 1956 on, it was allowed to change wheels.
Teams
![Wiemu15](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Wiemu15.jpg)
As was the custom since the
1930 Tour de France
The 1930 Tour de France was the 24th edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 2 to 27 July. It consisted of 21 stages over .
The 24th tour de France introduced a new format to team racing; teams were organised by country with ten riders ...
, the 1956 Tour de France was contested by national and regional teams. Seven national teams were sent, with 10 cyclists each from France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Luxembourg/Mixed (the latter a combined team of seven Luxembourgian cyclists added with one Portuguese, on British and one Italian cyclist). France additionally sent five regional teams from 10 cyclists each, divided into North-East/Centre, South-East, West, Île-de-France and South-West. In total, 120 cyclists started the race.
The teams entering the race were:
* France
* Italy
* Belgium
* Netherlands
* Spain
* Switzerland
* Luxembourg/Mixed
* North-East/Centre
* South-East
* West
* Île-de-France
* South-West
Pre-race favourites
The winner of the three previous editions,
Louison Bobet
Louis "Louison" Bobet (; 12 March 1925 - 13 March 1983) was a French professional road racing cyclist. He was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour de France in three successive years, from 1953 t ...
, was absent because he had surgery. Because there were less climbs and no mountain top finishes, cycling experts expected this edition to be too easy.
No other former Tour de France winner started the race. This was the third time in history that the race started without former winners, after the initial
1903 Tour de France and the
1927 Tour de France
The 1927 Tour de France was the 21st edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 19 June to 17 July. It consisted of 24 stages over .
This tour featured the first win by Nicolas Frantz, a cyclist from Luxembourg. Frantz had come in second i ...
.
Because Bobet was not there, the race was open, and there were many riders thought able to win the Tour. The most favourite of these was probably
Charly Gaul, who had won the
1956 Giro d'Italia
The 1956 Giro d'Italia was the 39th edition of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Giro started off in Milan on 19 May with a flat stage and concluded back in Milan with a relatively flat mass-start stage on 10 June. Sixtee ...
, although he was in a weak team, and would also be aiming for the
mountains classification
The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a femal ...
.
Route and stages
The 1956 Tour de France started on 5 July, and had two rest days, in Bordeaux and Aix-les-Provence. The
highest point of elevation in the race was at the summit of the
Col d'Izoard
Col d'Izoard () is a mountain pass in the Alps in the department of Hautes-Alpes in France.
It is accessible in summer via the D902 road, connecting Briançon on the north and the valley of the Guil in Queyras, which ends at Guillestre in the sou ...
mountain pass on stage 17.
Race overview
The first stage was won by
André Darrigade
André Darrigade (born 24 April 1929 in Narrosse) is a retired French professional road bicycle racer between 1951 and 1966. Darrigade, a road sprinter won the 1959 World Championship and 22 stages of the Tour de France. Five of those Tour vict ...
, one of the best sprinters of that time. In the third stage, a small group escaped and finished with a margin of fifteen minutes;
Gilbert Desmet
Gilbert Desmet (born 2 February 1931 in Roeselare), nicknamed ''Smetje van Lichtervelde'', is a former Belgian cyclist who was professional from 1952 to 1967. In the 1956 Tour de France, he wore the yellow jersey for 2 days, and in the 1963 To ...
became the new leader. The time trial of stage four was won by Gaul. In the second part of the fourth stage,
Roger Hassenforder
Roger Hassenforder (23 July 1930 in Sausheim 3 January 2021 in Colmar) was a French professional racing cyclist from Alsace.
Biography
Hassenforder was a professional cyclist from 1952 to 1965. He was known as the joker of the pack, earning h ...
escaped, and a took a group with him, including Darrigade. Desmet was not in that group, and lost more than 15 minutes, which made Darrigade leader again.
In the seventh stage, the peloton broke in two, and a large group of 31 cyclists finished more than 18 minutes ahead. This group included
Roger Walkowiak
Roger Walkowiak (; 2 March 1927 – 6 February 2017) was a French road bicycle racer who won the 1956 Tour de France. He was a professional rider from 1950 until 1960. He died on 6 February 2017 at the age of 89.
The 1956 Tour de France
From 19 ...
, who had also been in the escaped group in the fourth stage, and became the new leader. Walkowiak's team manager,
Sauveur Ducazeaux
Sauveur Ducazeaux (8 December 1910, Biarritz — 23 June 1987, Colmar) was a French professional road bicycle racer. He won one stage in the 1936 Tour de France. After his cycling career, he became a team captain. In 1956, he was the team captain ...
, advised Walkowiak that it would be too tough to try to remain the leader for the rest of the race, and suggested that Walkowiak lose the first place, and aim to regain it later in the race.
In the tenth stage, Walkowiak lost time, and
Gerrit Voorting
Gerardus "Gerrit" Petrus Voorting (18 January 1923 – 30 January 2015) was a Dutch road cyclist who was active between 1947 and 1960. As an amateur he won the silver medal in the individual road race at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. In h ...
who had also been part of the large breakaway group in stage seven, became the new leader.
Voorting lost the lead in the next stage to Darrigade, who himself lost the lead to
Jan Adriaensens
Jan (Cesar Jan) Adriaensens (born 6 June 1932 in Willebroek) was a Belgian road bicycle racer. He finished twice on the podium of the Tour de France, with a third place in 1956 and in 1960. In both these years, he wore the yellow jersey as the ...
in the twelfth stage.
In the fifteenth stage, the entire Belgian team was weak. Most Tour followers thought it was due to a doping practice that went wrong, but officially it was attributed to food poisoning. Adriaensens lost more than nine minutes, which made
Wout Wagtmans
Wouter "Wout" Wagtmans (10 November 1929 – 15 August 1994) was a Dutch road bicycle racer.
Together with Wim van Est he belonged to the generation that brought great popularity to cycling in the Netherlands in the 1950s. In 1947, Wagtmans st ...
the new leader. During the seventeenth stage, there was yet another escape, which included leader Wagtmans and Walkowiak, in fifth position in the general classification. The riders in second, third and fourth place were not in the escape, so Walkowiak moved up to the second place, more than four minutes behind Wagtmans. The eighteenth stage was the last chance for the climbing specialists to win back time, and so Gaul, Bahamontes and Ockers were aiming to win back time. Gaul escaped, and won the stage alone, with Ockers in second place. During the last climb, Bahamontes dismounted and threw his bike down the ravine, wanting to stop the race. The Spanish team was able to retrieve the bike, and convince Bahamontes to continue. Bahamontes finished the race in the group behind Ockers. The surprise of the day was that Walkowiak had been able to remain with Bahamontes, whereas Wagtmans (normally a decent climber) lost eight minutes more. Walkowiak took the first place in the general classification, with a margin of almost 4 minutes to
Gilbert Bauvin
Gilbert Bauvin (born 4 August 1927 in Lunéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle) is a former professional French road bicycle racer. He was a professional from 1950 to 1960. The highlights of his career include winning the Paris–Camembert in 1954 and T ...
.
In the time trial of stage 20, Bauvin performed very well, finishing in fifth place. Walkowiak ended in 24th place, but this was enough to keep a 1'25" lead. In the 21st stage,
Roger Hassenforder
Roger Hassenforder (23 July 1930 in Sausheim 3 January 2021 in Colmar) was a French professional racing cyclist from Alsace.
Biography
Hassenforder was a professional cyclist from 1952 to 1965. He was known as the joker of the pack, earning h ...
won his fourth stage of this Tour, after a solitary breakaway of 187 km.
Classification leadership and minor prizes
The time that each cyclist required to finish each stage was recorded, and these times were added together for the
general classification
The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumulat ...
. 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. Of the 120 cyclists that started the 1956 Tour de France, 88 finished the race.
The
points classification
The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called ''intermediate sprints''. The points cl ...
in 1956 was calculated in the same way as since the introduction in 1953, following the calculation method from the Tours de France from 1905 to 1912. Points were given according to the ranking of the stage: the winner received one points, the next cyclist two points, and so on. These points were added, and the cyclist with the fewest points was the leader of the points classification. In 1956, this was won by Stan Ockers with 280 points.
Over 22 stages (including one split stage), this meant that his average stage finish was approximately place 13.
Points for the
mountains classification
The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a femal ...
were earned by reaching the mountain tops first. The system was almost the same as in 1955: there were three types of mountain tops: the hardest ones, in category 1, gave 10 points to the first cyclist, the easier ones, in category 2, gave 6 points to the first cyclist, and the easiest ones, in category 3, gave 3 points. Charly Gaul won this classification.
The
team classification The team classification is one of the different rankings for which competitors can compete in a multiple stage cycling race. It differs from the other usual rankings (general classification, points, king of the mountain and best young rider competi ...
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. It was won by the Belgian team, with a large margin over the Italian team. Every team finished with at least three cyclists, so all teams were included in the team classification.
In addition, there was a
combativity award
The combativity award is a prize given in road bicycle racing to a stage's or the overall race's most aggressive rider.
References
{{cycling-stub
Cycling jerseys ...
given after each stage to the cyclist considered most combative. The split stages each had a combined winner. 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. André Darrigade won this classification, and was given overall the super-combativity award. After every stage, the jury also gave a prize to the cyclist with the most bad luck. The award for most bad luck during the entire Tour de France went to
Fernand Picot. The
Souvenir Henri Desgrange
The Souvenir Henri Desgrange is an award and cash prize given in the yearly running of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour races. It is won by the rider that crosses a particular point in the race, mostly the summits of the highest a ...
was given in honour of Tour founder
Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 – 16 August 1940) was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set twelve world track cycling records, including the hour record of on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France.
Yo ...
to the first rider to pass a point on stage 2 in village of
Cysoing in the far north, marking 200,000 kilometres travelled in Tour de France history. This prize was won by
Pierre Pardoën.
Final standings
General classification
Points classification
Mountains classification
Team classification
Combativity classification
Aftermath
The cycling fans had not been happy to see unknown Walkowiak win the race, and he was not cheered for when the race finished in the
Parc des Princes
Parc des Princes () is an all-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Paris, France, in the south-west of the French capital, inside the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, near the Stade Jean-Bouin ...
. Walkowiak was considered an unworthy winner, and never again was able to repeat such a win. His name entered the French language in the phrase "á la Walko", which means "won by an undeserving or unknown rider".
The press gave many reasons for Walkowiak's victory: the French national team had had internal problems, Gaul and Bahamontes had been occupied with the mountains classification and Ockers with the team classification.
Not all considered him unworthy; Five-time Tour winner
Bernard Hinault
Bernard Hinault (; born 14 November 1954) is a French former professional road cyclist. With 147 professional victories, including five times the Tour de France, he is often named among the greatest cyclists of all time. In his career, Hinault ...
praised his win saying: ''There are people who say that Walkowiak should not have won the Tour. They should have been on that Tour! He took the jersey, he lost it and he regained it. He was not a thief. The Tour is not a gift''.
Walkowiak was unhappy about how the people reacted to his Tour win, and for many years did not want to discuss it.
The French team manager
Marcel Bidot
Marcel Bidot (21 December 1902 – 26 January 1995) was a French professional road bicycle racer who won two stages of the Tour de France and became manager of the French national team. He led the team in 12 Tours and won six of them.
Racing
Ma ...
later criticized Darrigade for not helping Bauvin in the last stages; he thought that with the help of Darrigade, Bauvin might have been able to win back the 85 seconds on Walkowiak and win the race.
This was the final Tour for Belgian rider
Stan Ockers
Constant ("Stan") Ockers (3 February 1920 in Borgerhout – 1 October 1956 in Antwerp) was a Belgian professional racing cyclist.
He was runner-up in the Tour de France in 1950 and 1952, and the best sprinter in that race in 1955 and 1956. ...
, who died in a tragic accident during a track race just a few months after this Tour ended. Of the ten Tours held after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Ockers had entered eight, finished all in the top ten each time except in
1948 when he finished 11th. Ockers had won the
points classification
The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called ''intermediate sprints''. The points cl ...
in 1955 and 1956.
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tour De France, 1956
1956
1956 in French sport
1956 in road cycling
July 1956 sports events in Europe
1956 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo