1950 Tour de France
The 37th Tour de France ran from 13 July to 7 August 1950 to 22 stages over 4775 km. Last year's winner Fausto Coppi was after an injury he had suffered at the Giro d' Italia, will not start. 116 racers took part in the tour, were classified 51 of them.
Race course
In the first week tour, no driver could clearly settle the Frenchman Bernard Gauthier, who wore the yellow jersey for several days, was with his meantime nine minutes ahead not a candidate for the overall victory. Already on the first stage in the Pyrenees, he lost over 20 minutes in the peak and fell back.
On the eleventh stage to Saint -Gaudens attacked Gino Bartali, Tour winner in 1938 and 1948. Though he won the stage and teammate Fiorenzo Magni held the overall lead, the two Italian teams did after this stage in protest. On the Col d' Aspin Jean Robic had previously torn Bartali caught up, but aggressive fans took both drivers to case. Bartali was on the harassment of the sometimes drunken fans even after the fall and gave up the race after his stage win in frustration.
Fearing protests Italian fans the chance to line moved the route of the 15th stage, which was supposed to end in Aosta, Italy, Menton close to the Italian border. Due to the withdrawal of the Italian team reached the Swiss Ferdy Kübler, who had already decided on the sixth stage, the individual time trial in itself, in the leading position, which he did not relinquish it to the finish in Paris. On the 12th stage, he refused, however, to wear the yellow jersey. It was not until the following day there was another carrier this jerseys. Through his other stage successes in Nice and the second individual time trial, he built his lead.
Kübler fended off the attacks at the end of the second or third place Stan ocher and Louison Bobet. Bobet, who won a mountain stage in itself, after all, won the mountain classification.
On the 13th stage, a story that is still likes to tell of tour commentators in the 21st century occurred: The Algerian Abdel-Kader Zaaf consumed with his undertaken jointly with the later stage winner Marcel molines breakaway in the sweltering heat of the Languedoc two bottles wine, made after a short nap on the roadside and cycled after spectators had woken him, first in the direction of start location Perpignan back.