1926 Tour de France
Route of the 1926 Tour de France
Followed counterclockwise, starting in Evian, going counter-clockwise around France, and then to Paris. |
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| Race details | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | 20 June – 18 July | ||||||||||||
| Stages | 17 | ||||||||||||
| Distance | 5,745 km (3,570 mi) | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 238h 44' 25" | ||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||
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Winner |
 Lucien Buysse (BEL)
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(Automoto–Hutchinson) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Second |
 Nicolas Frantz (LUX)
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(Alcyon–Dunlop) | |
| Third |
 Bartoloméo Aymo (ITA)
|
(Alcyon–Dunlop) |
The 1926 Tour de France was the 20th edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 20 June to 18 July. It consisted of 17 stages with a total distance of 5745 km, ridden at an average speed of 24.064 km/h.
The longest tour in history, the route traced closely the borders of France. It was the first time that the race started outside Paris; in this way riders were forced to climb the mountains in the east of the country twice, once at the beginning of the race, and again at the end. The race was won by Belgian cyclist Lucien Buysse.
In 1925, the number of stages had been increased from 15 (which was common since 1910) to 18 stages. In 1926, this was decreased to 17 stages. Tour organiser Henri Desgrange wanted to have longer stages, so the average stage length increased from 312 km per stage in 1925 to 338 km per stage in 1926.
There were 126 cyclists who started the Tour de France; 82 of them were touriste-routiers, cyclists who did not have the support from a team. The other 44 cyclists started the race in teams; some teams only had two cyclists.
The two teams with favourites were Automoto and Alcyon. The Automoto team had Ottavio Bottecchia, the winner of the last two editions of the race, and Lucien Buysse, the runner-up of the previous edition. The Alcyon team had Bartolomeo Aymo and Nicolas Frantz, third and fourth in 1925. They also had Adelin Benoit, and the Tour organisation thought that the battle would be between Bottecchia and Benoit.
Jules Buysse started strong in the first stage, by finishing solo with a margin of more than 13 minutes. The second stage ended with a bunch sprint, so nothing changed in the general classification. In the third stage, he lost the lead to Gustaaf van Slembrouck. On that day, Lucien Buysse received the news that his daughter had died. He considered to leave the race, but decided to stay. The next stages all ended in bunch sprints, with all the favourites in the first group. In the sixth stage, Félix Sellier won the sprint. However, the jury decided that he had not sprinted according to the rules, and he was set back to second place, making Joseph van Dam the winner.
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