The 1965 Tour de France was the 52nd 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 . In his first year as a professional,
Felice Gimondi
Felice Gimondi (; 29 September 1942 – 16 August 2019) was an Italian professional racing cyclist. With his 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the ...
, a substitute replacement on the team, captured the overall title ahead of
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 ...
, the previous year's second-place finisher.
Gimondi became one of only seven riders, the others being
Alberto Contador
Alberto Contador Velasco (; born 6 December 1982) is a Spanish former professional cyclist. He is one of the most successful riders of his era, winning the Tour de France twice ( 2007, 2009), the Giro d'Italia twice (2008, 2015), and the Vue ...
,
Vincenzo Nibali
), The Nibbler
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Messina, Sicily, Italy
, height =
, weight =
, currentteam =
, discipline = Road
, role = Rider
, ridertype = Climber
, proyears1 = 2005
, proteam1 =
, proyears2 = 2006–2012
, protea ...
,
Chris Froome
Christopher Clive Froome ɹɪs fɹuːm (born 20 May 1985) is a Kenyan/British Road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He has won seven Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours: four editions of the Tour de ...
and five-time Tour winners
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 ...
,
Eddy Merckx
Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (, ; born 17 June 1945), better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is among the most successful riders in the history of competitive cycling. His victorie ...
and
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 ...
to have won all three of the major
Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...
. Besides Gimondi's first tour and win, it was a first for other reasons: the 1965 Tour started in
Cologne, Germany
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...
(the first time the Tour started in Germany,
and only the third time it started outside France), and it was the first time the start ramp was used in
time trials In many racing sports, an athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athlete or team sets off at ...
.
Jan Janssen
Johannes Adrianus "Jan" Janssen (; born 19 May 1940) is a Dutch former professional cyclist (1962–1972). He was world champion and winner of the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, the first Dutch rider to win either. He rode the Tour de ...
, who 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 ...
the previous year successfully defended his title; he won another points title in
1967 and the overall title at the
1968 Tour de France.
Julio Jiménez won two stages and his first of three consecutive
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 ...
. Jiminez also won the mountains classification at the 1965 Vuelta a España – becoming one of (now) four riders to complete the Tour/Vuelta double by winning both races' mountains competitions in the same year.
Teams
The 1965 Tour started with 130 cyclists, divided into 13 teams of 10 cyclists.
Each team had to include at least six cyclists with the same nationality. The Molteni–Ignis team was a combined team, with 5 cyclists from and 5 from .
The teams entering the race were:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* –
*
Pre-race favourites
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 ...
, who won the previous four Tours de France (1961–1964), did not participate in this tour. Cyclists in that time earned most of their income in
criterium
A criterium, or crit, is a bike race consisting of several laps around a closed circuit, the length of each lap or circuit ranging from about 400 m to 10,000 m.
Overview
Race length can be determined by a number of laps or total time ...
s, and Anquetil believed that even if he would win a sixth time, he would not get more money in those races.
This made
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 ...
, who finished second in the previous Tour, the main favourite.
Other favourites were Italians
Vittorio Adorni
Vittorio Adorni (14 November 1937 – 24 December 2022) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist.
Early life and amateur career
Adorni was born in San Lazzaro di Parma on 14 November 1937. and
Gianni Motta
Gianni Motta (born 13 March 1943) is an Italian former bicycle racer who won the 1966 Giro d'Italia.
Gianni Motta was born at Cassano d'Adda (Lombardy). His main victories include the Giro d'Italia (1966), a Giro di Lombardia (1964), a Tour ...
. Adorni had won the
Giro d'Italia earlier that year, helped by his team-mate
Felice Gimondi
Felice Gimondi (; 29 September 1942 – 16 August 2019) was an Italian professional racing cyclist. With his 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the ...
who finished third in his first year as a professional. Originally, Gimondi was not planning to start the 1965 Tour, but was asked to do so after several team-mates were ill.
Route and stages
The 1965 Tour de France started on 22 June, and had one rest day in Barcelona. 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 16.
Race overview
![Tour de France 1965, Stage 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Tour_de_France_1965%2C_Stage_1.jpg)
The race started in Germany, and the first stage, ending in Belgium, was won by Belgian
Rik Van Looy
Henri "Rik" Van Looy (born 20 December 1933 in Grobbendonk) is a Belgian former professional cyclist of the post- war period, nicknamed the ''King of the Classics'' or ''Emperor of Herentals'' (after the small Belgian city where he lived). He ...
. On the second stage, run over
cobbles
Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings.
Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fro ...
, three riders escaped:
Bernard Vandekerkhove,
Felice Gimondi
Felice Gimondi (; 29 September 1942 – 16 August 2019) was an Italian professional racing cyclist. With his 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the ...
and
Victor Van Schil
Victor Van Schil (21 December 1939 – 30 September 2009) was a Belgian racing cyclist. He rode in 21 Grand Tours in his career, including 11 editions of the Tour de France, four editions of the Vuelta a España, and six editions of the Giro ...
. Vandekerkhove won the stage, and became the new leader.
On the third stage, there was again a group away, including Gimondi and
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 ...
. Darrigade was one of the best sprinters of that time, so Gimondi knew he would not win if it would end in a sprint. Gimondi therefore escaped with one kilometer to go. Gimondi was able to stay away, and won the stage; it was the first victory in his professional career. Gimondi also took the lead in the general classification, represented by the yellow jersey; this made Gimondi a protected rider in his team because his sponsor wanted to keep the publicity associated with the yellow jersey as long as possible.
The second part of the fifth stage was run as an individual time trial. It was won by
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 ...
, but Gimondi was second, and kept his lead. He had a margin in the general classification of over two minutes on Vandekerkhove, while his team leader Adorni was in third place.
In the seventh stage, Adorni fell. His team-mates, including Gimondi, waited for him and lost some time; because of this, Vandekerkhove took back the lead.
The ninth stage was the first Pyrenean stage, and during that stage eleven riders abandoned because of sickness. This included the leader of the general classification Vandekerkhove, and also Adorni. Rumours about doping that went wrong circulated, but nothing was ever proven. Gimondi became the leader of the general classification again, and because his team leader Adorni had left the race, he also became the undisputed leader of this team.
![Tour de l'Avenir 1964 winner Felice Gimondi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Tour_de_l%27Avenir_1964_winner_Felice_Gimondi.jpg)
There were two more days in the Pyrenees, but these gave no big changes in the general classification. After stage eleven, Gimondi was still leading, with Poulidor in second place, more than three minutes behind. Poulidor expected that the inexperienced Gimondi would fail somewhere, and expected fourth-placed Motta to be his biggest rival. Poulidor announced he would attack on
Mont Ventoux
Mont Ventoux (; oc, Ventor, label= Provençal ) is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some northeast of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north side, the mountain borders the department of Drôme. At , it is the highest m ...
in stage fourteen.
During that stage, Poulidor showed his strength, and won. He had a big margin over Motta, but Gimondi had stayed surprisingly close, and kept the lead in the general classification with 34 seconds.
In the following Alp stages, Poulidor did not attack; he planned to take the lead in the mountain time trial of stage eighteen. But this was won by Gimondi, who thus increased his lead.
The only realistic chance left for Poulidor to win back time was in the individual time trial that ended the race. Poulidor was a good time trialist, and on a good day he should have been able to win back enough time to win the race. But Gimondi was the fastest man that day, and won the stage, and thereby the Tour de France.
Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were several classifications in the 1965 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 ...
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 "stars". The cyclist with the most "stars" in all stages lead the "star classification". Felice Gimondi won this classification. The jury gave
Cees Haast
Cees Haast (19 November 1938 – 18 January 2019) was a Dutch cyclist. His sporting career began with Fortuna Zundert.
Major results
1962
:2nd of Ronde van Limburg
:2nd of Delta Profronde
1964
:2nd of the Dutch National Road Race Championships
...
the prize more most unlucky cyclist, because he lost his sixth place in the general classification after a fall, and the prize for most sympathetic cyclist to
Gianni Motta
Gianni Motta (born 13 March 1943) is an Italian former bicycle racer who won the 1966 Giro d'Italia.
Gianni Motta was born at Cassano d'Adda (Lombardy). His main victories include the Giro d'Italia (1966), a Giro di Lombardia (1964), a Tour ...
, because he was always in a good mood and did not look for apologies after losing to Gimondi. 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 the summit of the
Col du Lautaret
Col du Lautaret () is a high mountain pass in the department of Hautes-Alpes in France.
It marks the boundary between the valleys of the Romanche and the Guisane, a tributary of the Durance which has its source at the col. The valleys are linke ...
on stage 17. This prize was won by
Francisco Gabica
Francisco Gabicagogueascoa Ibarra (31 December 1937 – 7 July 2014) was a professional road bicycle racer between 1961 and 1972. Of his 21 professional victories, Gabica is most famous for winning the 1966 Vuelta a España, besting runnerup ...
.
Final standings
General classification
Points classification
Mountains classification
Team classification
Combativity classification
Notes
References
Bibliography
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*
*
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tour de France, 1965
1965
Events January–February
* January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years.
* January 20
** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...
1965 in French sport
1965 in road cycling
June 1965 sports events in Europe
July 1965 sports events in Europe
1965 Super Prestige Pernod