1967 Tour de France

The 1967 Tour de France was the 54th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 29 June and 23 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of 4779 km. Thirteen national teams of ten riders competed, with three French teams, two Belgian, two Italian, two Spanish, one each from Germany, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and a Swiss/Luxembourgian team.

The Tour was marred by the fatal collapse of Tom Simpson on the slopes of Mont Ventoux.

The Tour de France was won by Roger Pingeon, member of the French national team that also won the team classification. The points classification was won by Jan Janssen, and the mountains classification by Julio Jimenez.

Teams
The previous years, the Tour had been contested by trade teams. Tour director Félix Lévitan held the team sponsors responsible for the riders' strike in the 1966 Tour de France, and therefore the formula was changed, and the national teams returned. The Tour started with 130 cyclists, divided into 13 teams of 10 cyclists.

The introduction of national teams had been seen as a gamble; the trade teams could have decided to keep their riders away from the Tour, and make the Giro d'Italia the main race. After many negotiations, this did not happen.

The teams entering the race were:

National teams


 * France
 * Germany
 * Belgium
 * Spain
 * Great Britain
 * Italy
 * Netherlands
 * Switzerland/Luxembourg

Secondary national teams


 * Red Devils (Belgium)
 * Esperanza (Spain)
 * Primavera (Italy)
 * Bleuets de France
 * Coqs de France

Five-time winner Jacques Anquetil decided not to join the Tour, preferring to ride the Giro d'Italia and planning to break the hour record. Pre-race favourites for the overall victory were Felice Gimondi, Jan Janssen, Julio Jiménez and Raymond Poulidor. The French team was headed by Poulidor and defending champion Lucien Aimar, with Roger Pingeon as third option. The team director Marcel Bidot made them sign a contract, which included fines for riders that would not follow orders, and forcing riders to share their prizes.

Route and stages
The route for the 1967 Tour de France was announced in January 1967.

The 1967 Tour de France started on 29 June, and was the first to have a prologue, a short individual time trial prior to stage racing, held in the evening, adding to the occasion. There were had two rest days, in Belfort and Sète. Whereas in previous years the trend had been that the Tour became shorter, in 1967 it was longer, with 4779 km. The highest point of elevation in the race was 2556 m at the summit tunnel of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 10.

Race overview
The prologue was won by Spanish José María Errandonea, with Raymond Poulidor in second place, six seconds behind. In the next few stages, the lead in the general classification changed hands several times, but the margins between the top favourites were small.

In the first part of the fifth stage, in Belgium, a group of fourteen cyclists including some Belgian cyclists escaped early in the stage. On the advice of his teammate Jean Stablinski, Roger Pingeon bridged the gap and joined the escaped group. The group stayed away, and Pingeon escaped 60 km before the finish, riding alone until the end of the stage. Pingeon won the stage, and also became the leader of the general classification.

Pingeon's lead was not challenged in the sixth stage, but he lost it in the seventh stage to his teammate Raymond Riotte, after Riotte was in a group that escaped. In the eighth stage, Riotte lost considerable time, and Pingeon was back in the lead. On that stage, Raymond Riotte lost more than 11 minutes, also because of a fall and mechanical problems, and announced that he would ride the rest of the Tour in support of Pingeon.

Pingeon gained a few seconds in the ninth stage after a split in the peloton. In the tenth stage, Poulidor helped Pingeon over the major climbs, and after that stage Pingeon had a margin of more than four minutes over the next rider, Désiré Letort from the Bleuets team.

The eleventh stage was won by 21-year old José Samyn; he is the youngest post-WW2 stage winner in the Tour de France as of 2024.

There were few changes in the general classification in the next two stages. The thirteenth stage was run in hot weather, and featured high climbs. During the climb of the Ventoux, Tom Simpson died. Unaware of what happened behind them, Jan Janssen won the stage, closely followed by Roger Pingeon, who extended his lead.

The riders in the peloton decided to ride the fourteenth stage in dedication of Tom Simpson, and let his teammate Barry Hoban win the stage.

In the sixteenth stage in the Pyrenees, Julio Jiménez won back a few minutes, and was now in second place behind Pingeon, 123 seconds behind. In the twentieth stage, with a finish on top of the Puy-de-Dôme, Jiménez won back some more time, and was now 1 minute and 39 seconds behind Pingeon. This was not enough to put Pingeon's victory in danger; the Tour ended with an individual time trial, and Pingeon rode it much better than Jiménez, and won the Tour de France of 1967.

Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were several classifications in the 1967 Tour de France, two of them awarding jerseys to their leaders. The most important was the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey; the winner of this classification is considered the winner of the Tour. The 1967 Tour de France gave small time bonuses for winners of flat stages, but not for mountain stages.

Additionally, there was a points classification. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing among the best in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a green jersey.

There was also a mountains classification. The organisation had categorised some climbs as either first, second, third, or fourth-category; points for this classification were won by the first cyclists that reached the top of these climbs first, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, but was not identified with a jersey.

The intermediate sprints classification, introduced in 1966, was used again in 1967. Every stage had one intermediate sprint, and the first three riders at each sprint scored points. The intermediate sprints did not give a time bonus for the general classification, nor points for the points classification. There was no special jersey for the leader of this classification.

For the team classification, the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added; the leading team was the team with the lowest total time. The riders in the team that led this classification wore yellow caps.

In addition, there was a combativity award, in which a jury composed of journalists gave points after each stage to the cyclist they considered most combative. The split stages each had a combined winner. At the conclusion of the Tour, Désiré Letort won the overall super-combativity award, also decided by journalists by a jury. The Souvenir Henri Desgrange was given to the first rider to pass the memorial to Tour founder Henri Desgrange near the summit of the Col du Galibier on stage 10. This prize was won by Julio Jiménez.

General classification
Janssen and Aimar were tied in time, but Janssen was ranked higher because he had more points in the points classification.

Doping
After the death of Tom Simpson on stage 13, there were accusations of doping use. The organisation decided to increase the doping controls, not only in the Tour but also in the simultaneously run Tour de l'Avenir. The Tour de France gave no positive tests, but several riders from the Tour de l'Avenir were disqualified. As in the 1966 Tour de France, doping tests were held on behalf of the French government. No positive tests were reported.

Aftermath
From 1904 to 1967, the Tour de France had always finished in the Parc des Princes. Soon after the finish of the 1967 Tour de France, a renovation of the Parc des Princes was started, which would take several years. This made it unavailable for the Tour de France in 1968, and the Tour de France finish moved to the Vélodrome de Vincennes, and would never return to the Parc des Princes.

The introduction of the prologue was considered successful, and was repeated in the next years.

To make sprints safer, a rule had been introduced in 1967 to give riders that crashed in the last 500 meters of a stage the same time as the other riders. This rule has been maintained, and the 'safe distance' has increased first to 1000 meters and then to 3000 meters.

Up to 1966, the time limit had been fixed; in 1967 it depended on the average speed of the winner of the stage. It has remained like this ever since.