The 1964 Tour de France was the 51st 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 ...
, one of cycling's
Grand Tours
In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the ''Grand Tours'', and all three races are similar in ...
. It took place between 22 June and 14 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of . Stages 3, 10 and 22 were all two-part stages with the first half being a regular stage and the second half being a
team
A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal.
As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interde ...
or
individual time trial
An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa a cronometro'' "stopwatch stage"). There are also track-b ...
. It was the only Tour de France to include a mid-stage climb to the L'Alpe D'Huez ski resort. The race was eventually won by
Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil (; 8 January 1934 – 18 November 1987) was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964.
He stated before the 1961 Tour that he would gain the y ...
following an epic shoulder-to-shoulder battle with
Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor (; 15 April 1936 – 13 November 2019), nicknamed "Pou-Pou" (), was a French professional racing cyclist, who rode for his entire career.
His distinguished career coincided with two other outstanding riders – Jacques Anquet ...
during stage 20.
Teams
The 1964 Tour started with 132 cyclists, divided into 12 teams of 11 cyclists.
The teams entering the race were:
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Pre-race favourites
The main favourite was defending champion Jacques Anquetil. He had won the
1964 Giro d'Italia
The 1964 Giro d'Italia was the 47th running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tour races. The Giro started in Bolzano, on 16 May, with a mass-start stage and concluded back in Milan, on 7 June, with a leg. A total of 130 riders f ...
earlier that year, and was trying to win a Tour-Giro double, which at that moment had only been done by
Fausto Coppi
Angelo Fausto Coppi (; 15 September 1919 – 2 January 1960) was an Italian cyclist, the dominant international cyclist of the years after the World War II, Second World War. His successes earned him the title ''Il Campionissimo'' ("Champio ...
.
Route and stages
The 1964 Tour de France started on 22 June, and had one rest day in Andorra. The
highest point of elevation in the race was at the
Cime de la Bonette
Cime de la Bonette (el. ) is a mountain in the French Alps, near the border with Italy. It is situated within the Mercantour National Park on the border of the departments of Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, between the Ubaye Valley an ...
loop road on stage 9.
Race overview
Anquetil, who was looking for his fifth Tour victory, was superior in the time trials, of which he won all three. But
Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor (; 15 April 1936 – 13 November 2019), nicknamed "Pou-Pou" (), was a French professional racing cyclist, who rode for his entire career.
His distinguished career coincided with two other outstanding riders – Jacques Anquet ...
dominated in the mountains, and Anquetil was close to losing.
The ninth stage finished in Monaco, where the riders would ride one extra lap, crossing the finish line twice. When the first group, including Poulidor and Anquetil, reached the finish line for the first time, Poulidor had forgotten the extra lap, and sprinted in avail for the victory. When the group reached the finish line for the second time, Anquetil won the sprint, and one minute of bonification time.
In the second part of the tenth stage, the time trial, Anquetil won. Poulidor finished in second place, losing 36 seconds, with a flat tire costing him some time.
In the rest day between the thirteenth and the fourteenth stage, Anquetil had joined a lamb barbecue, and in the fourteenth stage he was immediately dropped. His team director gave him a bottle of champagne, which washed away the indigestion, and then Anquetil was able to get back to Poulidor.
Poulidor then broke a spoke, the repair cost him some time, even more because a team mechanic, trying to help him gain speed, made him fall.
Poulidor attacked in the fifteenth stage, and stayed away. He won the stage, and in the general classification climbed to third place, nine seconds behind second-placed Anquetil.
Anquetil won the time trial of stage 17, and became the leader; Poulidor was in second place, only 56 seconds behind. In the twentieth stage, Poulidor did not have the right bicycle for the climb, but did not tell it to his team director. Poulidor dropped Anquetil in the climb, but the margin was not big enough for him to take over the lead, and Anquetil remained leader of the race by 14 seconds.
In the final time trial, Anquetil was the favourite, being the specialist. Poulidor rode as fast as he could, and with all other cyclists but Anquetil finished, had the best time. Anquetil was the last rider to ride the time trial, and was five seconds slower at the intermediate time check, which gave Poulidor hope that he could emerge as winner. However, Anquetil was clearly faster in the second part, and won the time trial.
Anquetil won the Tour by only 55 seconds,
which was at that moment the smallest margin in history.
Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were several classifications in the 1964 Tour de France, two of them awarding
jerseys to their leaders. The most important was 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 ...
, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey; the winner of this classification is considered the winner of the Tour.
Additionally, there was a
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 the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing among the best in a stage finish. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a green jersey.
There was also a
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 ...
. The organisation had categorised some climbs as either first, second, third, or fourth-category; points for this classification were won by the first cyclists that reached the top of these climbs first, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, but was not identified with a jersey.
For 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 ...
, the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added; the leading team was the team with the lowest total time. The riders in the team that led this classification wore yellow
caps
Caps are flat headgear.
Caps or CAPS may also refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters
* Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...
.
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 ...
, in which a jury composed of journalists gave points after certain stages to the cyclist they considered most combative. The split stages each had a combined winner. At the conclusion of the Tour,
Henry Anglade
Henry Anglade (6 July 1933 – 10 November 2022) was a French cyclist. In 1959 he was closest to winning the Tour de France, when he won a stage and finished second, 4:01 behind Federico Bahamontes. In 1960 he wore the yellow jersey for two days ...
won the overall super-combativity award, also decided by journalists. 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 by his final residence, the "Villa Mia" in Beauvallon,
Grimaud, on the
French Riviera
The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...
on stage 10a. This prize 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 ...
.
Final standings
General classification
Points classification
Mountains classification
Team classification
Notes
References
Bibliography
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:1964 Tour De France
Tour de France by year
Tour De France, 1964
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...