1952 Tour de France

The 1952 Tour de France was the 39th edition, held from 25 June to 19 July over 23 stages and 4,807 km, and introduced finishes on mountain summits. The Italian Fausto Coppi dominated it, winning five stages and the mountains classification and riding on the winning Italian team; his lead grew so large that the organisers doubled the prize money for second place to keep the race interesting. He finished almost half an hour ahead of the runner-up, a margin never achieved again, although in 1979 Bernard Hinault and Joop Zoetemelk both finished nearly half an hour clear of third place. Italy, Belgium and France sent teams of twelve, the other nations teams of eight.