1955 Tour de France
The 42nd Tour de France took place from 7 to 30 July 1955, and resulted in 22 stages over 4476 km. The tour ended with the victory in the third series of the Frenchman Louison Bobet. 130 racers took part in the tour, of which 69 were classified.
Race course
At the second stage Antonin Rolland won out of a top group, thus he was able to take the lead in the overall standings. Before the mountains he had more than ten minutes ahead of the favorites so that he was allowed to wear the yellow jersey until Stage 16. Only one stage he was forced to cede it to Wim van Est, however the next day lost time at Rolland.
On the first leg had become Louison Bobet, winner of 1953 and 1954, established a small lead over his closest competitor. In particular, on the 11th stage to Avignon on the Mont Ventoux was weakened by an injury in the seating area Bobet after a long solo escape all competitors behind and won the stage. Previously Bobet had witnessed how the 22 -year-old Luxembourg Charly Gaul Bobets favorite stage to Briançon, where he had previously placed in the two years the foundation for his tour victories, won.
In addition to Gaul, the Frenchman Jean Brankart Bobets was the largest competitor. After he had taken him in the final time trial almost two minutes, he came up to the later Tour winner to less than five minutes. Gaul won the mountain classification Bobet before the end still, the green jersey was won by the Belgian Stan ocher.
For the first time in 1955 target pictures were taken in order to spend the right stage winner at tight decisions.