1962 Tour de France - Race Details

Race Details

The Tour started in Belgium, and world champion Rik Van Looy wanted to wear the yellow jersey in his own country. In the final, he was in the lead group of 20 cyclists, but Rudi Altig surprised him in the sprint. Pre-race favourites Poulidor and Bahamontes already lost more than eight minutes. The second stage finished in the hown town of Van Looy. Van Looy took a wrong turn in his home town, and lost the chance of winning the stage. André Darrigade took over the lead, but Altig took it back in the third stage.

In the sixth stage, a big group escaped from the peloton. Altig and Anquetil were not there, but they had sent their team mate Ab Geldermans to protect the team's interests. Geldermans was the best placed man in the break, and their margin was so large that Geldermans became the new leader.

In first part of the eighth stage, another large group escaped, and Darrigade became the new leader. The second part of the eighth stage was a time trial, won by Anquetil.

Because of a successful breakaway in the ninth stage, Darrigade lost the lead to Willy Schroeders. In the eleventh stage, there was a crash involving twenty cyclists, with Van Looy as the main victim. Van Looy's kidney was injured, and he was brought to hospital. Schroeders kept the lead until the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees. In that stage, he could not keep up with the best climbers, and lost the lead to Tommy Simpson, who became the first British cyclist to wear the yellow jersey.

Simpson lost the lead the next stage, in a mountain time trial won by Bahamontes. Jozef Planckaert finished in second place, and became the new leader.

In the night after that stage, Hans Junkermann, riding for the Wiel's team, became ill. Junkermann was in seventh place in the general classification, and his team requested the start to be delayed by ten minutes, which the organisation allowed. After that stage, stage 14, had started, Junkermann quickly fell to the back, and had to give up. He was not the only one: twelve riders fell ill and said 'bad fish' was the cause. Tour doctor Pierre Dumas realized they had all been given the same drug by the same soigneur. Fourteen riders abandoned the Tour that day, including the former leader, Willy Schroeder, the 1960 winner Gastone Nencini and a future leader, Karl-Heinz Kunde. Jacques Goddet wrote that he suspected doping but nothing was proven - other than that none of the hotels had served fish the previous night. The newspapers ridiculed the riders, and this made the riders furious. They threatened to strike, but the journalist Jean Bobet, a former cyclist, was able to talk them into continuing although Jean Bobet was one of the creators of film "Vive Le Tour!" which ridiculed the riders and their 'bad fish' explanation.

Although Anquetil was not leading the race, he was in a good position to win. He considered Bahamontes as his main threat in the alps, because Bahamontes was a good climber, and had shown his excellent form in the time trial that he won. Before the Tour reached the alps, in the fourteenth stage, Anquetil lured Bahamontes into spending energy at the wrong time, and Bahamontes lost fifteen minutes in that stage. He was no longer a threat for the general classification, and Anquetil could focus on Planckaert, who still lead the general classification.

Important attacks were expected in stage 18 in the alps. Instead, the riders were going slow. In the first 4 hours, they only raced 100 km. Later, some attacks took place, but they failed for flat tires, and the defending tactics of the other riders. So in the end, Emile Daems, who was a sprinter and not a climber, was able to win this mountain stage.

The nineteenth stage followed the same route as the 21st stage in the 1958 Tour de France, where Gaul had won the race. Poulidor's injured hand was better now, and his team manager Antonin Magne told him that the time was ready to attack. Poulidor was almost ten minutes behind in the general classification, so he would probably be allowed some freedom. Poulidor attacked, and stayed away alone, jumping to the third place in the general classification. After that nineteenth stage, Belgian Jef Planckaert was still leading the race. In the time trial in stage 20, he lost considerable time, and Anquetil took over the lead. Anquetil remained the leader until the end, and won his third Tour.