Although the first ever Italian Grand Depart of Tour de France will take place in 2024, the race visited Italy for plenty of times, usually during mountain stages in the Alps.
Turin is one of the most visited Italian cities by Tour de France. In 1956, peloton made a trip to the place in 17th stage, and the next day went back to France. Though the Alps, of course.
Meanwhile, Tour de France history, (sort of) was made. Roger Walkowiak, the French rider, with no other success during his career, took the yellow jersey, and a few days later won the Tour de France. His triumph is often dubbed as "the less deserved victory" in the history of Tour de France. This sounds pretty much unfair, considering he did nothing wrong, in contrary, he did what a good GC rider has to do to win a grand tour:
he delivered a constant and solid performance, especially when it was needed the most, in the mountains.
Stage 17 from Gap to Turin was 234 km long and included Izoard, Mont Genévre and Sestriere. Wout Wagtmans, a Dutch rider was riding in yellow jersey. He became the leader general classification after stage 15. In general, Tour de France 1956 was mostly about successful breakaway attemps by less important riders. So came Roger Walakowiak into the lead in the first half of the race for a few days. Also Wagtmans managed to keep the yellow for a while, partially thanks to his breakaway activities. In the 17th stage, while Nino Defilippis, an Italian cyclist from Turin, won the stage, Roger Walkowiak jumped to the 2nd position in the GC.
On the next day, stage 18 started from Turin and after 250 km arrived in Grenoble. During the stage the peloton had to climb Mont Cenis, Croix de Fer and Luitel. This was the last chance for the climbers like Gaul, Bahamontes and Stan Ockers gain back some time in the general classification. The day went quite well for Charly Gaul. He won the stage, although he did not make it into the top10 of the general classification. Stan Ockers finished second.
Menawhile, Federico Bahamontes had a rather bad day in the saddle. On the last ascent he even trew away his bike and wanted to give up the race. But he was persuaded later not to do so. (He finished Tour de France 1956 in the 4th place of the general classification.)
But what was a bad day for a cyclist like Bahamontes,
it was probably one of the best performance of his entire career of Roger Walkowiak,
who managed to arrived in the finish together with the legendary Spaniard.
After the stage Walkowiak took the yellow jersey and managed to keep it until the very end of the race.
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Tour de France visits Turin (Tour de France 1956)
Although the first ever Italian Grand Depart of Tour de France will take place in 2024, the race visited Italy for plenty of times, usually during mountain stages in the Alps. Turin is one of the most visited Italian cities by Tour de France. In 1956, peloton made a trip to the place in 17th … Read more
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Eddy Merckx on Blockhaus (Giro d’Italia 1967)
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Horquette d’Ancizan at Tour de France
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