Description
1965 Tour de France
The 1965 Tour de France was the 52nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling’s Grand Tours. It took place between 22 June and 14 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of 4,188 km (2,602 mi). In his first year as a professional, Felice Gimondi, a substitute replacement on the Salvarani team, captured the overall title ahead of Raymond Poulidor, the previous year’s second-place finisher.
Gimondi became one of only seven riders, the others being Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome, and five-time Tour winners Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, and Bernard Hinault to have won all three of the major Tours. Besides Gimondi’s first tour and win, it was a first for other reasons: the 1965 Tour started in Cologne, Germany (the first time the Tour started in Germany,and only the third time it started outside France), and it was the first time the start ramp was used in time trials.
Jan Janssen, who won the points classification the previous year, successfully defended his title; he won another points title in 1967 and the overall title at the 1968 Tour de France.
Julio Jiménez won two stages and his first of three consecutive mountains classification. Jiminez also won the mountains classification at the 1965 Vuelta a España – becoming one of (now) four riders to complete the Tour/Vuelta double by winning both races’ mountains competitions in the same year.
Pre-race Favorites
Jacques Anquetil, who had won the previous four Tours de France (1961–1964), did not participate in this tour. At that time, cyclists earned most of their income in criteriums, and Anquetil believed that even if he won a sixth time, he would not get more money in those races.
This made Raymond Poulidor, who finished second in the previous Tour, the main favorite.
Other favorites were Italians Vittorio Adorni and Gianni Motta. Adorni had won the Giro d’Italia earlier that year, helped by his team-mate Felice Gimondi who finished third in his first year as a professional. Originally, Gimondi was not planning to start the 1965 Tour but was asked to do so after several teammates were ill.
Race Overview
The race started in Germany, and Belgian Rik Van Looy won the first stage, which ended in Belgium. On the second stage, which was run over cobbles, three riders escaped: Bernard Vandekerkhove, Felice Gimondi, and Victor Van Schil. Vandekerkhove won the stage and became the new leader.
On the third stage, there was again a group away, including Gimondi and André Darrigade. Darrigade was one of the best sprinters of that time, so Gimondi knew he would not win if it ended in a sprint. Gimondi, therefore, escaped with one kilometer to go. Gimondi was able to stay away and win the stage; it was the first victory in his professional career. Gimondi also took the lead in the general classification, represented by the yellow jersey; this made Gimondi a protected rider in his team because his sponsor wanted to keep the publicity associated with the yellow jersey as long as possible.
The second part of the fifth stage was run as an individual time trial. Raymond Poulidor won it, but Gimondi was second and kept his lead. He had a margin in the general classification of over two minutes on Vandekerkhove, while his team leader, Adorni, was in third place.
In the seventh stage, Adorni fell. His teammates, including Gimondi, waited for him and lost some time; because of this, Vandekerkhove took back the lead.
The ninth stage was the first Pyrenean stage, and during that stage, eleven riders were abandoned because of sickness. This included the leader of the general classification Vandekerkhove, and also Adorni. Rumors about doping that went wrong circulated, but nothing was ever proven. Gimondi became the leader of the general classification again, and because his team leader, Adorni, had left the race, he also became the undisputed leader of this team.
There were two more days in the Pyrenees, but these gave no big changes in the general classification. After stage eleven, Gimondi was still leading, with Poulidor in second place, more than three minutes behind. Poulidor expected that the inexperienced Gimondi would fail somewhere and expected fourth-placed Motta to be his biggest rival. Poulidor announced he would attack Mont Ventoux on stage fourteen.
During that stage, Poulidor showed his strength and won. He had a big margin over Motta, but Gimondi had stayed surprisingly close and kept the lead in the general classification with 34 seconds.
In the following Alp stages, Poulidor did not attack; he planned to take the lead in the mountain time trial of stage eighteen. However, Gimondi won this, thus increasing his lead.
The only realistic chance left for Poulidor to win back time was in the individual time trial that ended the race. Poulidor was a good time trialist, and on a good day, he should have been able to win back enough time to win the race. But Gimondi was the fastest man that day and won the stage and, thereby, the Tour de France.
Excerpt from Wikipedia – Read the full article by clicking here
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