The 44th Tour de France was held between 27 June and 20 July 1957. This was the first of Jacques Anquetil’s five victories.
The race was 4669 km long, divided into 22 stages. It was still an edition with national teas, but it was the first time since the introduction of the system, that riders were allowed to show ads on their jerseys. The French were the dominant team, they won a total of 12 stages, even the team classifications, and also provided the race winner.
The biggest missing name was Louison Bobet, who rode the Giro d’Italia and decided not to participate at the Tour de France. Another notable French rider, Raphael Geminiani skipped the event. Although the defending champion, Roger Walkowiak was in the team, it was built up around the new hour record holder, Jacques Anquetil.
But the biggest favourites considered to be Charly Gaul and Federico Bahamontes. The Fresh Giro d’Italia winner, Gaston Nencini was in the peloton too.
The race ended quite early for Charl Gaul, who gave it up on the second stage due to sickness. Many other riders abandoned the race. 1957 was a quite hot summer, and allegedly, the usage of amphetamine had the side effect making to race much more difficult in hot weather (on the other hand this could be one of the reasons, why Gaul was able to ride so well in cold).
Also, Federico Bahamontes left the race earlier than it eas expected, even before the real mountain stages would have come. He was always a complicated man, had some troubles, conflicts with his teammates. Miguel Poblet, the one with he had a relatively good relationship, abandoned the race earlier, the others supported rather Bahamontes’s rival, Jesus Lorono. The Eagle of Toledo just simply wanted to leave the race, and he did so.
The first power move of Jacques Anquetil was to see on the 3/b stage when he was in the breakaway (alongside with riders like Bahamontes, Nencininand Walkowiak). He won the stage but was only in the third position of the GC. He jumped to the top after spending another stage in the breakaway group. Although the fifth stage between Roubaix and Charleroi was won by Gilbert Bauvin, the real winner of the day was the new man in the yellow: Jacques Anquetil. He lost his leading position on the 7th stage, gained back only on the first hard day in the Alps (stage 10, including Telegraphe and Galibier. His position was only in real danger on the 19th stage when he missed getting his feed bag and was totally exhausted on the Tourmalet.
He also won the 9th stage and the two individual time trials (stages 15/b and 20).
Top10 of the race
1.Jacques Anquetil (France): 135hr 44min 42sec
2. Marcel Janssens (Belgium) @ 14min 56sec
3. Adolf Christian (Switzerland) @ 17min 20sec
4. Jean Forestier (France) @ 18min 2sec
5. Jésus Lorono (Spain) @ 20min 17sec
6. Gastone Nencini (Italy) @ 26min 3sec
7. Nino Defilippis (Italy) @ 27min 57sec
8. Wim Van Est (Netherlands) @ 28min 10sec
9. Jan Adriaenssens (Belgium) @ 34min 7sec
10. Jean Dotto (France, South-East) @ 36min 21sec