Race Details
The first stage was split in two parts. In the first part, a group of fourteen cyclists cleared from the rest, and won with a margin of over two minutes. In the second part, an individual time trial, Roger Rivière won. The lead in the general classification transferred to Nencini, who had been part of the group of fourteen cyclists. Federico Bahamontes, winner of the 1959 Tour, became ill and left the race in the second stage.
Nencini lost the lead in the third stage to Joseph Groussard. In the fourth stage, a group including Henri Anglade escaped, and Anglade became the new leader. Anglade had already finished in second placed in 1959, and expected to be the team leader now.
In the sixth stage, Rivière attacked. Only Nencini, Hans Junkermann and Jan Adriaensens could follow. Anglade asked his team manager Marcel Bidot to instruct Rivière to stop his attack, because Nencini and Adriaensens were dangerous opponents. Rivière ignored this, and continued. They beat the rest by almost fifteen minutes, and Adriaensens took over the lead in the general classification. After the stage, Anglade said that the French team lost the Tour in that stage. Anglade knew that Rivière would try to stay close to Nencini in the mountains, and warned that Rivière would regret staying close to Nencini downhill.
The first mountains were climbed in the tenth stage. Nencini won time in the descent from the Col de Aubisque, where Adriaensens could not follow. After the Aubisque, Adriaensens worked together with his team mate Jef Planckaert to win back time, but Nencini was able to stay away from them, and became the new leader, with Rivière in second place, only 32 seconds behind. Nencini gained one minute on Rivière in the eleventh stage, but Rivière knew he had the stronger team. Moreover, Rivière was at that moment the holder of the hour record, and knew he would win back enough time in the time trial in stage 19.
In the fourteenth stage, going down the Col de Perjuret, Nencini made the pace, and Rivière followed him. Rivière then missed a corner, and fell 20 meters down a ravine. Rivière's life was never in danger, but he was never able to ride a bicycle again, so this meant the end of his career.
Because of that, Jan Adriaensens climbed to the second place in the general classification, and he now was the main competitor for Nencini. Adriaensens lost time in the Pyrénées, and the Italians were able to put Graziano Battistini in second place. In the last stages, there was no competition for the overall victory, because it was clear that Nencini's advantage was too large. Therefore all cyclists put their energy to win the remaining stages. For the points classification, Jean Graczyk had built a large lead, but the mountains classification was only clinched by Imerio Massignan in the final mountain stage.
Read more about this topic: 1960 Tour De France
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