1962 жылғы Тур де Франс: Жаку Анкетильдің жеңісі

Cycling race in France in 1962

The 1962 Tour de France was the 49th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race consisted of 22 stages, including two split stages, starting in Nancy on 24 June and finishing at the Parc des Princes in Paris on 15 July. There were four time trial stages and no rest days. After more than 30 years, the Tour was again contested by trade teams instead of national teams. Jacques Anquetil of the team won the overall general classification, defending his title to win his third Tour de France. Jef Planckaert placed second, 4min 59s in arrears, and Raymond Poulidor was third, over ten minutes behind Anquetil. Anquetil's teammate Rudi Altig took the first general classification leader's yellow jersey after winning the first stage. He lost it the following day to André Darrigade of , who won stage 2a, before regaining it after winning stage three. The lead was taken by Saint Raphaël rider Albertus Geldermans after stage six. He held it for two stages, before Darrigade took it back for the next two. Flandria rider Willy Schroeders then led the race between the end of stage nine to the end of eleven, at which point Schroeders' teammate Rik Van Looy, a major pre race favourite, abandoned the race with an injury. The following day, British rider Tom Simpson (Gitane–Leroux) became the first rider from outside mainland Europe in history to wear the yellow jersey. He lost it to Planckaert after stage thirteen's individual time trial to Superbagnères in the Pyrenees. He held the lead for seven stages, which included the Alps. Anquetil's victory in the individual time trial of stage twenty put him in the yellow jersey, which he held until the conclusion of the race. In the other race classifications, Altig won the points classification and Federico Bahamontes won the mountains classification. Saint Raphaël won the team classification. The overall awards for most combative and unluckiest were given to Eddy Pauwels and Van Looy respectively. Altig and Emile Daems won the most stages, with three each.

The leading contender for the overall general classification before the Tour was the defending champion Jacques Anquetil of the Saint Raphaël team. His closest rivals were thought to be Rik Van Looy (Flandria) and Raymond Poulidor (Mercier). The other riders considered contenders for the general classification were Rudi Altig (Saint Raphaël), Charly Gaul (Gazzola), Federico Bahamontes (Margnat), Gastone Nencini (Ignis), Henry Anglade (Liberia), Guido Carlesi (Philco), Tom Simpson (Gitane–Leroux), Ercole Baldini (Ignis) and Hans Junkermann Of these, three were former winners of the Tour: Gaul (1958), Bahamontes (1959) and Nencini (1960). Frenchman Anquetil, who also won the Tour in 1957, had dominated the 1961 Tour, leading it from the first day to the last, with a winning margin of over twelve minutes. Less than two months before the 1962 Tour, Anquetil had withdrawn from the Vuelta a España, the previous Grand Tour, before the final stage due to viral hepatitis. Although he was the team leader, he was 32nd in the general classification at the time of his withdrawal, while his teammate Altig won the race. After recovering for ten days, Anquetil went against his doctor's orders and rode the week long stage race Critérium du Dauphiné, finishing seventh overall. Anquetil's former bitter rival Raphaël Géminiani was then selected as the team manager of Saint Raphaël for the Tour. Unhappy, Anquetil asked his sponsors to replace Géminiani; they declined his request. Van Looy, the winner of the previous two world road race championships, made his Tour debut in 1962. He had avoided riding the Tour because he thought he did not have the full support of the Belgium team, but with Flandria he had control over rider selection. He had a successful season leading up to the Tour, winning the one day classics Paris–Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders and Gent–Wevelgem, and two stages of the Giro d'Italia Grand Tour. He crashed during training four days before the Tour which caused a muscular stretch in his left thigh. Although Van Looy was known as a one day classics specialist, he was considered a threat to Anquetil, who himself named Van Looy as the only rider who concerned him, fearing the high number of "flat" stage wins could potentially add up to eight minutes due to the one minute bonuses given to stage winners. A "duel" between him and Anquetil was billed by the press.

In the opening stage, a 23 man breakaway group of riders escaped the peloton (main group) as they passed Luxembourg City with remaining. They stayed away and came to the finish over six minutes ahead, with Rudi Altig winning the sprint, and taking the first yellow jersey as leader of the general classification. Rik Van Looy, third on the stage, was denied the opportunity to wear the yellow jersey in his own country and into his home town of Herentals at the end of the following stage. Of the pre race favourites, Raymond Poulidor, Charly Gaul and Federico Bahamontes were not present in the lead group. Altig also took the points classification's green jersey, and Liberia rider Jean Selic led the mountains classification. The first part of the second stage ended with a bunch sprint won by André Darrigade of Gitane–Leroux. Van Looy escaped close to the end but took a wrong turn; he placed fourth. Darrigade, second previously, took the yellow and green jerseys, with Angelino Soler of Ghigi taking the lead of the mountains classification. The team time trial in Herentals later in the day was won by Flandria; their winning margin over second place Gitane–Leroux was 1min 15s, and moved four of their riders into the top ten. Altig retook the yellow jersey in stage three's sprint from a breakaway consisting of 41 riders. Gaul and Bahamontes lost further time, finishing in the peloton over five minutes in arrears.

In the fourth stage, Mercier's Willy Vanden Berghen won the sprint finish between a group of six that went clear with around to go. Altig reclaimed the green jersey. Stage five ended in a bunch sprint won by Philco rider Emile Daems, with Gitane–Leroux's Rolf Wolfshohl taking the lead of the mountains classification. In the sixth stage, a 16 man (15 at the end) group escaped in and held on to the finish at Brest, with Robert Cazala of Mercier winning the sprint. Altig and Anquetil were not there, but they had sent their teammate Albertus Geldermans to protect the team's interests. Geldermans was the best placed man in the break, and their finishing margin of over five minutes was so large that Geldermans became the new overall leader. Flandria's Huub Zilverberg won stage seven from a two way sprint with Gitane–Leroux's Bas Maliepaard; the pair attacked from a breakaway of twenty riders in the final and finished five seconds ahead at the finish in Saint Nazaire. As the chasing breakaway went through a narrow section of the finishing straight, Gastone Nencini hit a gendarme (French police officer) and fell, also bringing down Darrigade. Most of the stages in the first week were unusually fast; stage seven was calculated to be , the fastest recorded to that point above a distance of Because of a successful breakaway in stage nine, Darrigade lost the lead to Flandria rider Willy Schroeders; Carpano's Antonio Bailetti won the stage. The following stage was won by Vannitsen's teammate Eddy Pauwels, who dropped his fellow breakaway riders and soloed to victory with a four minute advantage at Pau's motor race street circuit. A crash into the stage involving 22 riders was caused by a motorbike carrying a photographer. Van Looy, whose back was injured by the motorbike's handlebars, was the most notable casualty; he was able to continue for a further , before he was advised to retire from the race by the Tour's doctor, Pierre Dumas.

Stage twelve, the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees, saw Cazala take his second win from a sprint between an elite group of climbers and overall favourites who finished together after the descent to Saint Gaudens. Schroeders could not keep up with this group, which included British rider Tom Simpson, and Simpson took the overall lead, Planckaert had taken over the leadership of Flandria after the departure of Van Looy, with former race leader Schroeders pledging his support. He was considered an able substitute due to his form during the season leading up to the Tour, winning the stage races Paris–Nice and the Tour de Luxembourg and the one day classic Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The final Pyrenean stage, the fourteenth, saw Saint Raphaël rider Jean Stablinski attack his 10 strong breakaway with remaining and solo to the finish in Carcassonne with a margin of twelve seconds. The first of the three transitional stages, fifteen, that crossed France's southern coastline ended in a bunch sprint won by Vannitsen. In stage sixteen, Daems and Bailetti escaped the peloton with to go, with Daems attacking to win with a margin of three minutes; the chasing group of seven came in eight minutes later. Altig won the seventeenth stage in a sprint from a four rider breakaway that finished over six minutes ahead of the peloton.

In the first of the two Alpine stages, the eighteenth, attacks were expected. Instead, the riders went at a slow pace; in the first four hours, they had only raced Later, some attacks took place, but they failed because of punctured tyres and the defensive tactics of the leading riders; in the end, Daems, who was a sprinter and not a climber, was able to win this mountain stage. Poulidor's injured hand was better by stage nineteen, and his team manager told him it was time to attack. He was placed ninth in the general classification, ten minutes behind, so he would have not likely been seen as a threat. Attacking over the final climbs, he soloed to the finish at Aix les Bains with an advantage of more than three minutes over his rivals, moving him to third place overall, 5min 43s in arrears, with Planckaert still leading and Anquetil second, 1min 8s down. In stage twenty, a individual time trial finishing in Lyon, Planckaert came in fourth place, losing 5min 19s to the winner, Anquetil, who took the overall lead. Anquetil was a time trial specialist and considered unbeatable at the time. Baldini placed second, 2min 59s off the time set by Anquetil, and third was Poulidor who came in 5min 1s down to keep his third place overall. In the final stage, Benedetti gained his second victory of the race from a bunch sprint in front of an estimated crowd of 30,000 at Parc des Princes. Anquetil finished the race to claim his third Tour de France, equalling the record number of Tour wins by a rider with Belgian Philippe Thys and Frenchman Louison Bobet. It was revealed later that Anquetil had ridden the race with tapeworm. He beat second placed Planckaert by 4min 59 s, with Poulidor third, a further 5min 25s down. Altig won the points classification with a total of 173, which was 29 ahead of Daems in second. Bahamontes won the mountains classification with 137 points, 60 ahead of second placed Imerio Massignan Saint Raphaël won the team classification, which they led from the opening stage, with Mercier coming second and Flandria third. a record high to that point.