1966 Tour de France

The Televizier–Batavus team during stage three's team time trial in Tournai, Belgium, which they won

As in the years before, the 1966 Tour de France was run with trade teams; each trade team consisted of 10 cyclists, and at least six of them needed to have the same nationality.[2]

Initially, there would be only two Belgian teams, but one month before the Tour it was decided that three Belgian teams would be fielded, with the Smiths team being the late addition.[3] Shortly after this, a medical test showed Felice Gimondi, winner of the 1965 Tour de France, could not defend his title because he was physically not fit; his Salvarani team then decided not to start at all, so the number of teams was back to thirteen.[4]

The organisers then invited the Italian team Sanson (headed by Italo Zilioli and Franco Balmamion) to replace Salvarani,[5] but at the last moment they refused.[6] Thirteen teams started, for a total of 130 cyclists.[7]

The teams entering the race were:[7]

The 1966 Tour de France started on 21 June, and had two rest days, in Luchon and Turin.[8] The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,556 m (8,386 ft) at the summit tunnel of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 16.[9][10]

Stage characteristics and winners[1][8][11][12]

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
1	21 June	Nancy to Charleville	209 km (130 mi)		Plain stage	Rudi Altig (FRG)
2	22 June	Charleville to Tournai (Belgium)	198 km (123 mi)		Plain stage	Guido Reybrouck (BEL)
3a	23 June	Tournai (Belgium)	21 km (13 mi)		Team time trial	Televizier–Batavus
3b		Tournai to Dunkirk	131 km (81 mi)		Plain stage	Gerben Karstens (NED)
4	24 June	Dunkirk to Dieppe	205 km (127 mi)		Plain stage	Willy Planckaert (BEL)
5	25 June	Dieppe to Caen	178 km (111 mi)		Plain stage	Franco Bitossi (ITA)
6	26 June	Caen to Angers	217 km (135 mi)		Plain stage	Edward Sels (BEL)
7	27 June	Angers to Royan	252 km (157 mi)		Plain stage	Albert Van Vlierberghe (BEL)
8	28 June	Royan to Bordeaux	138 km (86 mi)		Plain stage	Willy Planckaert (BEL)
9	29 June	Bordeaux to Bayonne	201 km (125 mi)		Plain stage	Gerben Karstens (NED)
10	30 June	Bayonne to Pau	234 km (145 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Tommaso de Pra (ITA)
11	1 July	Pau to Luchon	188 km (117 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Guido Marcello Mugnaini (ITA)
	2 July	Luchon			Rest day
12	3 July	Luchon to Revel	219 km (136 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Rudi Altig (FRG)
13	4 July	Revel to Sète	191 km (119 mi)		Plain stage	Georges Vandenberghe (BEL)
14a	5 July	Montpellier to Aubenas	144 km (89 mi)		Plain stage	Jo de Roo (NED)
14b		Vals-les-Bains	20 km (12 mi)		Individual time trial	Raymond Poulidor (FRA)
15	6 July	Privas to Le Bourg-d'Oisans	203 km (126 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Luís Otano (ESP)
16	7 July	Le Bourg-d'Oisans to Briançon	148 km (92 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Julio Jiménez (ESP)
17	8 July	Briançon to Turin (Italy)	160 km (99 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Franco Bitossi (ITA)
	9 July	Turin (Italy)			Rest day
18	10 July	Ivrea (Italy) to Chamonix	188 km (117 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Edy Schütz (LUX)
19	11 July	Chamonix to Saint-Étienne	265 km (165 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Ferdinand Bracke (BEL)
20	12 July	Saint-Étienne to Montluçon	223 km (139 mi)		Plain stage	Henk Nijdam (NED)
21	13 July	Montluçon to Orléans	232 km (144 mi)		Plain stage	Pierre Beuffeuil (FRA)
22a	14 July	Orléans to Rambouillet	111 km (69 mi)		Plain stage	Edward Sels (BEL)
22b		Rambouillet to Paris	51 km (32 mi)		Individual time trial	Rudi Altig (FRG)
	Total		4,329 km (2,690 mi)[13]

The finish of the stage two in Tournai, Belgium, won by Guido Reybrouck

Rudi Altig won the first stage with a small advantage. In the next stages, no big time differences were made, so Altig was able to defend his lead until the mountains.[14]

The first mountains were in the tenth stage. A group including Lucien Aimar and Jan Janssen gained time on pre-race favourites Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor, and Tommaso de Pra won the race and became the new leader. The next stage, Lebaube became the leader, and Kunde took over in the twelfth stage.[14]

In the time trial in the fourteenth stage, Anquetil was defeated by Poulidor. Kunde remained the leader, with Janssen in second place. In the sixteenth stage, Julio Jiménez escaped in the Pyrenées, and he was followed by a group including Janssen, Anquetil and Poulidor, but without Kunde. Jiménez stayed away, but Janssen became the new leader.[14]

Even though the seventeenth stage included two mountain climbs, it was not considered too difficult, because these climbs were located in the first half of the stage. The cyclists made the climbs in one large group, but in the descent, a large group escaped. They were chased by teammates Anquetil and Aimar, and when most of the escapees were caught, Aimar continued on his own, and surprised Janssen by this. Janssen lost time on Aimar, and Aimar became the new leader.[14]

In the eighteenth stage, Janssen wanted to attack, but Aimar and Anquetil stayed close to him. Poulidor, sixth in the general classification, managed to escape, but Anquetil led the chase on him. The next day, Anquetil left the race, sick and no longer able to win himself.[14]

Janssen managed to win back some time on Aimar in the final time trial, but it was not enough, and Aimar became the winner of the Tour.[14] Janssen became the first Dutch cyclist to reach the podium in the general classification in the Tour de France.[1]

There were several classifications in the 1966 Tour de France, two of them awarding jerseys to their leaders.[15] 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.[16]

Additionally, there was a points classification. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing among the best in a stage finish. The cyclist with the most points led the classification and was identified with a green jersey.[17]

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 led the classification, but was not identified with a jersey.[18]

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.[19]

In addition, there was a combativity award given after each stage to the cyclist considered most combative. The split stages each had a combined winner. The decision was made by a jury composed of journalists who gave "stars". The cyclist with the most "stars" in all stages lead the "star classification".[20] Rudi Altig won this classification.[8] 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 16. This prize was won by Julio Jiménez.[21]

Classification leadership by stage[22][23]

Stage	Winner	General classification	Points classification	Mountains classification[lower-alpha 1]	Intermediate sprints classification	Team classification	Combativity		Bad luck award
							Award	Classification
1	Rudi Altig	Rudi Altig	Rudi Altig	Giacomo Fornoni	Guido Neri	Molteni	Rudi Altig	Rudi Altig	Henk Nijdam
2	Guido Reybrouck		Guido Reybrouck	Tommaso de Pra			Tommaso de Pra		Julien Delocht
3a	Televizier–Batavus					Roméo–Smith's	Gerben Karstens		Robert Cazala
3b	Gerben Karstens		Willy Planckaert	Domingo Perurena	Jan Boonen
4	Willy Planckaert						Tom Simpson		Henk Nijdam
5	Franco Bitossi						Johny Schleck		Tom Simpson
6	Edward Sels						Aurelio González Puente		Joseph Novales
7	Albert Van Vlierberghe						Rudi Altig		no award
8	Willy Planckaert						Rik Van Looy		Mariano Díaz
9	Gerben Karstens						Henk Nijdam		Rolf Wolfshohl
10	Tommaso de Pra	Tommaso de Pra		Tommaso de Pra		Molteni	Mariano Díaz		Giacomo Fornoni
11	Guido Marcello Mugnaini	Jean-Claude Lebaube		Guido Marcello Mugnaini		Kas–Kaskol	Guido Marcello Mugnaini		no award
12	Rudi Altig	Karl-Heinz Kunde		Julio Jiménez			Rudi Altig		Aurelio González Puente
13	Georges Vandenberghe						Tom Simpson		Rik Van Looy
14a	Jo de Roo						Ferdinand Bracke		Victor Van Schil
14b	Raymond Poulidor
15	Luís Otano			Joaquim Galera			Luis Otaño		Willy Planckaert
16	Julio Jiménez	Jan Janssen		Julio Jiménez	Guido Neri		Julio Jiménez		Julien Delocht
17	Franco Bitossi	Lucien Aimar					Lucien Aimar		Tom Simpson
18	Edy Schütz						Raymond Poulidor		Guido De Rosso
19	Ferdinand Bracke						Ferdinand Bracke		Jean-Claude Lebaube
20	Henk Nijdam						Multiple riders		no award
21	Pierre Beuffeuil						Pierre Beuffeuil		no award
22a	Edward Sels						Multiple riders		Jacques Anquetil
22b	Rudi Altig								Raymond Poulidor
Final		Lucien Aimar	Willy Planckaert	Julio Jiménez	Guido Neri	Kas–Kaskol	Rudi Altig		Tom Simpson

• Amels, Wim (1984). De geschiedenis van de Tour de France 1903–1984 (in Dutch). Valkenswaard, Netherlands: Sport-Express. ISBN 978-90-70763-05-3.
• Augendre, Jacques (2016). Guide historique [Historical guide] (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• McGann, Bill; McGann, Carol (2008). The Story of the Tour de France: 1965–2007. Vol. 2. Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59858-608-4.
• Nauright, John; Parrish, Charles (2012). Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice. Vol. 2. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-300-2.
• van den Akker, Pieter (2018). Tour de France Rules and Statistics: 1903–2018. Self-published. ISBN 978-1-79398-080-9.

• "Sporting Cyclist: Tour de France issue" (PDF). Coureur Sporting Cyclist. Vol. 10, no. 9. London: Longacre Press. September 1966. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 March 2019 – via Veteran-Cycle Club Library.

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