page_title: 1968 Tour de France
section_title: Race overview
hierarchical_section_title: 1968 Tour de France / Race overview
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: WK Wielrennen te Heerlen finish profs. Janssen (2), Merckx en Spanjaard
context_page_description: The 1968 Tour de France was the 55th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 27 June and 21 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of 4,492 km. Eleven national teams of 10 riders competed, with three French teams, two Belgian teams and one from Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, and a combined Swiss/Luxembourgian team.
  The 1968 Tour marked the first time the race end at the Vélodrome de Vincennes taking covering a distance of for the now-defunct Parc des Princes Velodrome, which served as the final stop from 1904 to 1967. The general classification was won by Jan Janssen, who overtook Herman Van Springel in the final time trial.
context_section_description: The initial time trial was won by Charly Grosskost, with most favourites shortly behind him. Grosskost also won the next stage, and thus kept the lead.
  In the first part of the third stage, a team time trial, the Belgian A team won, and because of the time bonuses Herman Vanspringel took over the lead.
  The next stages were all flat, and the favourites were unable to gain time on each other. In the fourth stage, a group without favourites escaped and won the stage with a margin of a few minutes; Jean-Pierre Genet was the best-placed cyclist of that group, and became the new leader. A similar thing happened in the first part of the fifth stage; Georges Vandenberghe was the only cyclist who had been present in both escape groups, and he became the new leader of the general classification.
  Vandenberghe was now a few minutes ahead in the general classification, and kept that lead until the start of the Pyrenees after stage eleven.
  Vandenberghe was expected to lose the lead in the twelfth stage, because he was not known to be a good climber. But he surprised, and stayed with some of the favourites, keeping the lead. In that stage, the Dutch team was reduced to four cyclists, and the leader Jan Janssen did not look strong. On the other hand, the leader of the French team Raymond Poulidor had gained time, and seemed to be the best-placed favourite, in fifth place in the general classification.
  In the thirteenth stage, Vandenberghe again was able to stay at the front. In the last day in the Pyrenees during stage fourteen, Janssen won the stage, but won little time by that, as almost all cyclists were in the group just behind him.
  In the fifteenth stage, Raymond Poulidor was hit by a motor, but was able to remount and reach the finish, although he lost more than a minute on his direct competitors.
  In the sixteenth stage, French internal rivalry was dominating; while Roger Pingeon of the France A team was slowing down to drink, Lucien Aimar of the France B team attacked, and took a group of favourites with him. Although Aimar was later dropped from that group, Godefroot, Janssen, Vanspringel, Bracke and Gandarias stayed at the front, while Pingeon, Poulidor and Vandenberghe lost more than nine minutes, and were out of contention. The new leader was now Rolf Wolfshohl, with San Miguel in second place and Franco Bitossi in third place.
  In the eighteenth stage, Pingeon fought back and escaped early in the stage. He was joined by Bitossi, who was keen on taking over the lead in the general classification. On the last climb, Bitossi was out of energy and lost considerable time. Pingeon won the stage, and San Miguel climbed up to the first place in the general classification. However, the top eight was within two minutes of each other.
  In the nineteenth stage, San Miguel lost a little time on Vanspringel, who became the new leader. The next few stages did not change anything in the top of the general classification. The Tour ended with a time trial, and before the time trial, Herman Van Springel was leading, followed by San Miguel at 12 seconds, Janssen at 16 seconds and Bitossi at 58 seconds. Janssen won the final time trial, with Van Springel in second place, but the margin was large enough for Janssen to win the Tour.
caption: Jan Janssen (pictured in 1967), winner of the general classification
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