The 1968 Tour de France was the 55th Tour de France, taking place June 27 to July 21, 1968. It consisted of 22 stages over 4684.8 km, ridden at an average speed of 34.894 km/h. Eleven national teams of 10 riders competed, with three French teams, two Belgian teams and one from Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, and a combined Swiss/Luxembourgian team.
The 1968 Tour marked the first time the race end at the Vélodrome de Vincennes taking over for the now-defunct Parc des Princes Velodrome, which served as the final stop from 1904 to 1967.
The general classification was won by Jan Janssen, who overtook Herman Van Springel in the final time trial.
It was the last edition in which the cyclists participated in national teams; from 1969 on, commercial teams were used.
Read more about 1968 Tour De France: Changes From The 1967 Tour De France, Participants, Race Details, Stages, Classification Leadership, Results
Famous quotes containing the words tour and/or france:
“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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