1956 Tour de France
The 43rd Tour de France takes place from 5 to 28 July 1956 and resulted in 22 stages over 4498 km. The tour ended with the surprise victory of the Frenchman Roger Walkowiak from the Regional Team " north-eastern France ." Louison Bobet, who had previously won the Tour three years in a row, did not compete, even Fausto Coppi and Ferdy Kübler were not at the start. It was attended by 120 racers participated in the tour, of which 88 were classified.
Race course
The Frenchman André Darrigade won the first stage and then carried on the flat stages the yellow jersey. Only two stages he had to temporarily leave it to the Belgian Gilbert Desmet.
On the seventh stage to Angers, a breakaway group was formed from 31 is not strongly assessed drivers who drove out to a lead of approximately 19 minutes, Roger Walkowiak took over the leader's jersey. However, the favorites to Charly Gaul underestimated the strength of the torn driver in the mountains and could not catch up with.
On the stage to Bayonne Walkowiak lost the lead, they fought in the Alps back. In the meantime, had in January Adriaensens from Belgium and the Netherlands Wout Wagtmans who were also represented in the large breakaway group of seventh stages, took over the jersey. At the end Adriaensens came in third place. Before it still pushed the Frenchman Gilbert Bauvin, who had driven a strong time trial on the penultimate stage and came up to 1:25 minutes in the leading Walkowiak. Bauvin had lost crucial time on Walkowiak in the Pyrenees after a fall.
Charly Gaul, who could no longer engage in the fight for the overall victory, won two stages and the mountains classification. The green jersey as last year won the Belgian Stan ocher. The Frenchman Roger Hassenforder could convince with four stage wins, including one victory after a 187- km-long solo flight at the stage from Lyon to Montlucon.
Walkowiak won the Tour without a single stage victory and presented with 36.268 km / h set a new record at the average speed.