The 1951 Tour de France was the 38th Tour de France, taking place from July 4 to July 29, 1951. It consisted of 24 stages over 4690 km, ridden at an average speed of 32.949 km/h.

The race was won by Swiss cyclist Hugo Koblet

Hugo Koblet

Hugo Koblet was a Swiss champion cyclist. He won the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia as well as competing in six-day and pursuit races on the track. He won 70 races as a professional...

. Koblet used his time-trial abilities to win large amounts of time. Dutch cyclist Wim van Est made fame, not only by becoming the first Dutch cyclist to lead the Tour de France, but more by falling down a ravine in the leader's jersey.

Changes from the 1950 Tour de France

The 1951 Tour de France started in Metz

Metz

Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...

; it was the second time after the 1926 Tour de France

1926 Tour de France

The 1926 Tour de France was the 20th Tour de France, taking place June 20 to July 18, 1926. It consisted of 17 stages with a total distance of 5745 km, ridden at an average speed of 24.064 km/h....

 that the start of the Tour de France was not in Paris. Other than in previous years, the route was no longer around the circumference of France, and the Massif Central

Massif Central

The Massif Central is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaux....

 mountains were visited for the first time.

Participants

As was the custom since the 1930 Tour de France

1930 Tour de France

The 1930 Tour de France was the 24th Tour de France, taking place from 2 to 27 July 1930. It consisted of 21 stages over 4,822 km, ridden at an average speed of 28.000 km/h....

, the 1951 Tour de France was contested by national and regional teams. The three major cycling countries in 1951, Italy, Belgium and France, each sent a team of 12 cyclists. Other countries sent teams of 8 cyclists: Switzerland, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Spain. The French regional cyclists were divided into four teams of 12 cyclists: Paris, Ile de France–North West, East–South East and West–South West. The last team of eight cyclists was made up out of cyclists from the French North African colonies. In the end, Luxembourg only sent 7 cyclists, so altogether this made 123 cyclists.

There were 68 French cyclists (of which 1 French-Morrocan and 7 French-Algerian), 12 Italian, 12 Belgian, 8 Dutch, 8 Spanish, 8 Swiss and 7 Luxembourgian cyclists.

Race details

On the first stage, Hugo Koblet

Hugo Koblet

Hugo Koblet was a Swiss champion cyclist. He won the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia as well as competing in six-day and pursuit races on the track. He won 70 races as a professional...

 attacked almost immediately from the start. The peloton got back to him after 40 km (24.9 mi). Koblet stayed calm for the next stages, until the individual time trial in stage seven, which he won.
Initially, Bobet was reported to have won the time trial by one second. Koblet protested against the result, and argued that the intermediate timings showed that Bobet could not have won. The Tour de France jury agreed that Bobet's time was off by one minute, and Koblet was given the stage victory by 59 seconds.

In the eleventh stage, Koblet attacked after 37 km (23 mi). He was followed by Louis Deprez for a short while, but when Deprez fell back, Koblet was on his own. It was a hot day, and the other cyclists did not believe that Koblet's escape had any chance. When the peloton heard that Koblet was already three minutes ahead, they started to chase him. They worked together for more than 100 km, but couldn't reach Koblet, who won the stage with a margin of more than two and a half minutes. Directly after Koblet finished, he used a stopwatch to measure the time gap, because he did not trust the Tour's time keepers anymore. The other cyclists were amazed that Koblet had been able to defend his lead against al the other cyclists.
In the twelfth stage, Dutch cyclist Wim van Est

Wim van Est

Willem van Est was a Dutch racing cyclist.He is best known for being the first Dutch cyclist to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France of 1951, and for falling into a ravine while wearing it.-Biography:...

 escaped, won the stage and took the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification. He was the first Dutch cyclist to do so. Van Est was inexperienced in the mountains that showed up in the thirteenth stage, but did his best to defend his lead. Going up the Aubisque, Van Est punctured and lost time. He tried to gain back time on the descent by following Magni, a fast descender. Van Est could not follow, and crashed. He remounted and rode down again, but took too much risk and fell down a ravine. His fall was broken by trees, 75 meters down. Spectators helped him to climb back, by handing him a rope made from inner tubes.
In the next stage, Van Est fell down a ravine while defending his position, and had to abandon the race. Gilbert Bauvin took over the lead. Géminiani crossed the finish line first in that stage, but he was set back to fourth place by the jury.

In the fourteenth stage, Coppi attacked. Koblet punctured, but chased back and reached Coppi, and outsprinted him to win the stage, and thanks to the minute bonification time as stage winner took over the lead.

In the sixteenth stage, that seemed not too hard because there were almost no mountains, Coppi collapsed and lost more than half an hour. This was said to be caused by grief over his brother

Serse Coppi

Serse Coppi was an Italian professional road racing cyclist born in Castellania. He was the younger brother of Italian cyclist Fausto Coppi.-Professional career:...

's death, although other accounts said it was because of food poisoning. His team mates and former rivals Gino Bartali

Gino Bartali

Gino Bartali, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice and the Tour de France in 1938...

 and Fiorenzo Magni

Fiorenzo Magni

Fiorenzo Magni is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist.He was born in Vaiano, province of Prato . He was the "third man" of the golden age of Italian cycling, at the time of the great rivalry between Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali...

 helped him until the end of the stage.

The Mont Ventoux

Mont Ventoux

Mont Ventoux is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some 20 km northeast of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north side, the mountain borders the Drôme département. It is the largest mountain in the region and has been nicknamed the "Giant of Provence", or "The Bald...

 was climbed in the seventeenth stage for the first time in Tour de France history. Bobet escaped and won the stage, while Koblet was able to stay with his competitors. After that stage, second-placed rider Géminiani was no longer trying to beat Koblet, but instead focussed on defending his second place against Bobet.

Koblet stayed out of problems for the rest of the race, and won the time trial in the 22rd stage with a large margin; he even overtook Bartali who had started 8 minutes earlier.

Stages

Stage results

Stage	Date	Route	Terrain	Length	Winner
1	4 July	Metz – Reims Reims Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....	Plain stage	185 km (115 mi)
2	5 July	Reims – Ghent Ghent Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...	Plain stage	228 km (142 mi)
3	6 July	Ghent – Le Tréport Le Tréport Le Tréport is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A small fishing port and light industrial town situated in the Pays de Caux, some northeast of Dieppe at the junction of the D940, the D78 and the D1015 roads...	Plain stage	219 km (136 mi)
4	7 July	Le Tréport – Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...	Plain stage	188 km (117 mi)
5	8 July	Paris – Caen Caen Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....	Plain stage	215 km (134 mi)
6	9 July	Caen – Rennes Rennes Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...	Plain stage	182 km (113 mi)
7	10 July	La Guerche La Guerche La Guerche is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.People from La Guerche are called Guerchois or Guerchoises....  – Angers Angers Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....	Individual time trial Individual time trial An individual time trial is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock . There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials...	85 km (53 mi)
8	11 July	Angers – Limoges Limoges Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....	Plain stage	241 km (150 mi)
9	13 July	Limoges – Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...	Stage with mountain(s)	236 km (147 mi)
10	14 July	Clermont-Ferrand – Brive	Stage with mountain(s)	216 km (134 mi)
11	15 July	Brive – Agen Agen Agen is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Aquitaine in south-western France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. It is the capital of the department.-Economy:The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average...	Plain stage	177 km (110 mi)
12	16 July	Agen – Dax Dax, Landes Dax is a commune in Aquitaine in south-western France, sub-prefecture of the Landes department.It is particularly famous as a spa, specialising in mud treatment for rheumatism and similar ailments....	Plain stage	185 km (115 mi)
13	17 July	Dax – Tarbes Tarbes Tarbes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.It is part of the historical region of Gascony. It is the second largest metropolitan area of Midi-Pyrénées, with 110,000 inhabitants....	Stage with mountain(s)	201 km (125 mi)
14	18 July	Tarbes – Luchon	Stage with mountain(s)	142 km (88 mi)
15	19 July	Luchon – Carcassonne Carcassonne Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...	Stage with mountain(s)	213 km (132 mi)
16	20 July	Carcassonne – Montpellier Montpellier -Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....	Plain stage	192 km (119 mi)
17	22 July	Montpellier – Avignon Avignon Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...	Stage with mountain(s)	224 km (139 mi)
18	23 July	Avignon – Marseille Marseille Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...	Plain stage	173 km (107 mi)
19	24 July	Marseille – Gap Gap, Hautes-Alpes Gap is a commune in southeastern France, the capital of the Hautes-Alpes department.-Geography:An Alpine crossroads at the intersection of D994 and Route nationale 85 the Route Napoléon, Gap lies above sea level along the right bank of the Luye River...	Stage with mountain(s)	208 km (129 mi)
20	25 July	Gap – Briançon Briançon Briançon a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department....	Stage with mountain(s)	165 km (103 mi)
21	26 July	Briançon – Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It is situated on the shore of Lac du Bourget, by rail north of Chambéry.-Geography:...	Stage with mountain(s)	201 km (125 mi)
22	27 July	Aix-les-Bains – Geneva Geneva Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...	Individual time trial Individual time trial An individual time trial is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock . There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials...	97 km (60 mi)
23	28 July	Geneva – Dijon Dijon Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....	Stage with mountain(s)	197 km (122 mi)
24	29 July	Dijon – Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...	Plain stage	322 km (200 mi)

Classification leadership

Stage	General classification	Mountains classification	Team classification Team classification The team classification is a prize given in the Tour de France to the best team in the race. It has been awarded since 1930, and the calculation has changed throughout the years.-Calculation:...
1		no award	?
2
3
4
5
6			?
7
8
9
10
11
12			West–South West
13			?
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Final

General classification

Of the 123 cyclists that started the 1951 Tour de France, 66 finished the race.

Final general classification (1–10)

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1	'	Switzerland	142h 20' 14"
2		France	+22' 00"
3		France	+24' 16"
4		Italy	+29' 09"
5		Belgium	+32' 53"
6		France	+36' 40"
7		Italy	+39' 14"
8		East–South East	+45' 53"
9		Spain	+45' 55"
10		Italy	+46' 51"

Final general classification (11–66)
Rank	Rider	Team	Time
11		France	+57' 19"
12		Luxembourg	+59' 29"
13		Belgium	+1h 04' 18"
14		Belgium	+1h 07' 18"
15		Italy	+1h 08' 52"
16		West–South West	+1h 13' 36"
17		Belgium	+1h 13' 57"
18		Belgium	+1h 14' 36"
19		West–South West	+1h 15' 30"
20		France	+1h 24' 09"
21		West–South West	+1h 31' 27"
22		Belgium	+1h 35' 04"
23		East–South East	+1h 36' 23"
24		Switzerland	+1h 39' 45"
25		Belgium	+1h 42' 22"
26		France	+1h 51' 09"
27		Paris	+1h 55' 35"
28		Switzerland	+1h 58' 47"
29		Italy	+1h 59' 13"
30		West–South West	+2h 01' 51"
31		France	+2h 08' 05"
32		East–South East	+2h 09' 29"
33		East–South East	+2h 09' 45"
34		East–South East	+2h 12' 23"
35		Switzerland	+2h 13' 36"
36		East–South East	+2h 18' 29"
37		Ile de France–North West	+2h 25' 44"
38		Italy	+2h 28' 01"
39		East–South East	+2h 31' 33"
40		Belgium	+2h 34' 04"
41		France	+2h 39' 02"
42		Belgium	+2h 47' 01"
43		Belgium	+2h 47' 16"
44		Spain	+2h 49' 29"
45		Paris	+2h 53' 38"
46		Ile de France–North West	+2h 54' 06"
47		East–South East	+2h 58' 29"
48		Italy	+2h 58' 38"
49		West–South West	+2h 59' 11"
50		Switzerland	+3h 01' 15"
51		Ile de France–North West	+3h 09' 00"
52		Italy	+3h 11' 03"
53		East–South East	+3h 11' 58"
54		Italy	+3h 12' 23"
55		Luxembourg	+3h 19' 02"
56		France	+3h 20' 40"
57		West–South West	+3h 21' 30"
58		Spain	+3h 24' 24"
59		Spain	+3h 40' 13"
60		Switzerland	+3h 48' 32"
61		France	+3h 49' 47"
62		Belgium	+3h 56' 05"
63		Paris	+4h 08' 53"
64		East–South East	+4h 45' 26"
65		North Africa	+4h 56' 59"
66		North Africa	+4h 58' 18"

Mountains classification

Points for the mountains classification were earned by reaching the mountain tops first. The system was almost the same as in 1950: there were two types of mountain tops: the hardest ones, in category 1, gave 10 points to the first cyclist, the easier ones, in category 2, gave 6 points to the first cyclist, and the easiest ones, in category 3, gave 3 points. Raphaël Géminiani won this classification.

Final mountains classification (1–10)

Rank	Rider	Team	Points
1	'	France	66
2		Italy	59
3		Italy	41
3		Switzerland	41
3		Spain	41
6		France	37
7		Paris	23
8		France	22
8		East–South East	22
10		East–South East	18

Team classification

The team classification

Team classification

The team classification is a prize given in the Tour de France to the best team in the race. It has been awarded since 1930, and the calculation has changed throughout the years.-Calculation:...

 was calculated by adding the times in the general classification of the best three cyclists per team. It was won by the French team, with a large margin over the Belgian team.

Final team classification

Rank	Team	Time
1	France	426h 47' 36"
2	Belgium	+44' 37"
3	Italy	+1h 22' 16"
4	East–South East	+1h 48' 00"
5	West–South West	+2h 15' 38"
6	Switzerland	+2h 49' 55"
7	Spain	+4h 45' 19"
8	Île-de-France–North West	+5h 30' 39"
9	Paris	+6h 05' 29"

The other three teams that started, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and North Africa, did not finish with three cyclists so were not eligible for the team classification.

Other awards

The special award for the best regional rider was won by eight-placed Gilbert Bauvin

Gilbert Bauvin

Gilbert Bauvin is a former professional French road bicycle racer. He was a professional from 1950 to 1960...

.

Aftermath

Hugo Koblet would be unable to defend his title in the 1952 Tour de France

1952 Tour de France

The 1952 Tour de France was the 39th Tour de France, taking place June 25 to July 19, 1952. It was composed of 23 stages over 4807 km, ridden at an average speed of 31.739 km/h. Newly introduced were the arrivals on mountain peaks....

, as he was injured then. After that, Koblet never reached the heights that he was able to reach in 1951.
Second-placed Géminiani said that he regarded himself as the winner, because Koblet did not count because he was not human.

Van Est, who fall down a ravine wearing the leader's yellow jersey, starred in an advert for watch-making company Pontiac, that said "His heart stopped but his Pontiac kept time.".