1933 Tour de France

In the 1932 Tour de France, the bonus system had had a major impact on the results: without these bonuses, the difference between the number one and number two would have been only three seconds, but with these bonuses, it became more than 24 minutes. In 1933, the bonus time was reduced: only the winner received two minutes of bonus time. Since the 1913 Tour de France, the Tour de France had been counter-clockwise. In 1933, this changed, and the race was run clockwise again. ==Teams==

Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France entered national teams, consisting of eight cyclists (Les As). Additionally, 40 Les Individuels, cyclists without a team (including two Spaniards and an Austrian), entered the race. Georges Ronsse, Learco Guerra, Albert Büchi, Kurt Stöpel and André Leducq were the captains of their respective teams. ==Pre-race favourites==

The French team has been named the best collection of pre-war cyclists. The Belgian team had talented riders, but were split between French-speaking and Dutch-speaking cyclists. The Italian team was headed by Learco Guerra. Guerra had won three stages in the 1933 Giro d'Italia and had been world champion. Tour director Henri Desgrange had named Guerra as probable winner of the race. ==Route and stages==

The highest point of elevation in the race was at the summit tunnel of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 7. ==Race overview==

On 27 June 1933, the Tour de France was started by Josephine Baker. The French team, that had won the last three Tours de France, started well. Maurice Archambaud won the first stage, and lead the general classification until the Alps. In the third stage, French sprinter Charles Pélissier, who had already won 13 Tour stages in his career, hit a car. He continued the race, but was injured, and finished behind the time limit. Until the eighth stage, the battle for the lead was between Archambaud and Learco Guerra. In that eighth stage, French cyclist Georges Speicher asked permission to his team leader Archambaud if he could go for the stage win, and he could. He raced away, and won the stage. In the mountains of the ninth stage, Archambaud could not compete with the rest. When Archambaud folded on the Allos, somebody else could take over the lead. The next cyclist in the General Classification, Guerra, had a flat tire, and could not win enough time. In the end, it was unknown Belgian Georges Lemaire who took over the lead. Guerra was only 23 seconds behind in the General Classification after that stage. In stage 10, all but six cyclists finished more than 22 minutes after the winner. According to the rules, the cut-off time (the extra time that a cyclist can lose on the stage winner before he is taken out of the race) was 8% of the time of the stage winner. That rule would have put everybody but these six cyclists out of the race. Because of this, the Tour director Henri Desgrange extended the cut-off time for this stage to 10%, in this way 43 cyclists stayed in the race. Before the last stage, Martano was in second place, and Guerra in third. This last stage was won by Guerra, and thanks to the bonus time of two minutes, Guerra took over the second place. ==Classification leadership and minor prizes==

The time that each cyclist required to finish each stage was recorded, and these times were added together for the general classification. If a cyclist had received a time bonus, it was subtracted from this total; all time penalties were added to this total. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey. The bonus in the 1933 Tour de France were also decisive for the overall victory. Without the bonus of two minutes for the stage winner, Giuseppe Martano would have won the race. This classification was calculated in the same way as the general classification, but only the cyclists riding as individuals were eligible. ==Final standings==

General classification Mountains classification Team classification ==Aftermath==

For the 1933 UCI Road World Championships, that was held after the race, Tour de France winner Georges Speicher was initially not selected. Only after a French cyclist that had been selected dropped out, Speicher was brought in as a replacement at the last notice, and won the race. The national team format that had been introduced in 1930, had in four races produced four French victories. The French audience was therefore greatly interested in the race, and the organising newspaper l'Auto had a record circulation of 854000. ==Notes==