The 1963 Tour de France was the 50th Tour de France, taking place 23 June to 14 July 1963. The total race distance was 21 stages over 4,137 km (2,571 mi), with riders averaging 37.092 km/h (23.048 mph). Stages 2 and 6 were both two part stages, the first half being a regular stage and the second half being a team or individual time trial.
The Tour organisers were trying to break the dominance of Anquetil, who had won already three Tours, by reducing the time trials length to only 79 km (49 mi), so that the climbing capabilities would be more important.
Nonetheless, the race was won by Anquetil, who was able to stay close to his main rival Federico Bahamontes in the mountains, one time even by faking a mechanical problem in order to get a bicycle that was more suited for the terrain. Bahamontes finished as the second-placed cyclist, but won the mountains classification. The points classification was won by Rik Van Looy.
Read more about 1963 Tour De France: Changes From The 1962 Tour De France, Participants, Race Details, Stages, Classification Leadership, Results, Aftermath
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“Left Washington, September 6, on a tour through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.... Absent nineteen days. Received every where heartily. The country is again one and united! I am very happy to be able to feel that the course taken has turned out so well.”
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“But as some silly young men returning from France affect a broken English, to be thought perfect in the French language; so his Lordship, I think, to seem a perfect understander of the unintelligible language of the Schoolmen, pretends an ignorance of his mother-tongue. He talks here of command and counsel as if he were no Englishman, nor knew any difference between their significations.”
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