The lamb transformed into a lion

Never was it possible for us to write: 'Today Fausto was mistaken'. His legs never betrayed him, neither did his legs or his brains...I ask myself if ever in the course of the history of the Tour de France a winner knew how to ally more strength to more wisdom, patience and intelligence.
- André Leducq

Absent in 1950 after a crash in the Giro; depressed and out of form in 1951 after the death of his brother Serse, 1952 was the year that Fausto Coppi was determined to renew his dominance in the Tour de France. And with what style did he do so! So complete was the dominance of the Campionissiomo that the organisers had to double the prizes for second and third place to preserve interest in the race.

Seemingly whenever the road went upwards, Coppi was in a class of his own. Having proved his form in the opening time trial, the rout started on l'Alpe d'Huez, used in the Tour for the first time. Once again it was the Breton rider Jean Robic who was first on the attack, but halfway up the climb Coppi moved smoothly past to win alone by over a minute, claiming the yellow jersey in the process. The next day the attack came much earlier, halfway up the Col du Galibier. Moving past early attacker Jean Le Guilly, Coppi set out on his own with seventy five kilometres still to ride to the finish in Sestrière: by the finish, his lead had stretched to seven minutes over second placed rider Bernardo Ruiz. In two days, Coppi had moved from being four minutes behind his gregario Andrea Carrea to being nearly twenty minutes ahead of his closest challenger, Alex Close.

The domination was total; when Coppi punctured on the way to Monaco, Gino Bartali was on hand to give him a wheel, burying years of enmity in the process. In Avignon, after Mont Ventoux, Robic was the winner, but as if to show who was boss, Coppi evaded the pack for a narrow victory in the Pyrenees, then won again on the Puy de Dôme (also included in the Tour for the first time). He could afford to take a leisurely stroll through the closing time trial; by Paris, his lead was 28 minutes on Stan Ockers and more than thirty on Bernardo Ruiz and the amazing Gino Bartali, now 38 years old and fourth in the Tour de France. "Irresistible just as he had been in Paris - Roubaix", wrote André Leducq, "the lamb was transformed into a lion".

Stage winners

	Stage	Winner	Overall Leader
Stage 1	Brest - Rennes, 246km	Rik Van Steenbergen	Rik Van Steenbergen
Stage 2	Rennes - Le Mans, 181km	André Rosseel	Van Steenbergen
Stage 3	Le Mans - Rouen, 189km	Nello Lauredi	Nello Lauredi
Stage 4	Rouen - Roubaix, 232km	Pierre Molineris	Lauredi
Stage 5	Roubaix - Namur, 197km	Jean Diederich	Lauredi
Stage 6	Namur - Metz, 228km	Fiorenzo Magni	Fiorenzo Magni
Stage 7	Metz - Nancy, 60km TT	Fausto Coppi	Lauredi
Stage 8	Nancy - Mulhouse, 252km	Raphaël Geminiani	Magni
Stage 9	Mulhouse - Lausanne, 238km	Walter Diggelmann	Andrea Carrea
Stage 10	Lausanne - l'Alpe d'Huez, 266km	Coppi	Fausto Coppi
Stage 11	Le Bourg d'Oisans - Sestriere, 182km	Coppi	Coppi
Stage 12	Sestriere - Monaco, 251km	Jan Nolten	Coppi
Stage 13	Monaco - Aix-en-Provence, 214km	Raoul Rémy	Coppi
Stage 14	Aix-en-Provence - Avignon, 178km	Jean Robic	Coppi
Stage 15	Avignon - Perpignan, 275km	Georges Decaux	Coppi
Stage 16	Perpignan - Toulouse, 200km	Rosseel	Coppi
Stage 17	Toulouse - Bagnères-de-Bigorre, 182km	Geminiani	Coppi
Stage 18	Bagnères-de-Bigorre - Pau, 149km	Coppi	Coppi
Stage 19	Pau - Bordeaux, 195km	Hans Dekkers	Coppi
Stage 20	Bordeaux - Limoges, 228km	Jacques Vivier	Coppi
Stage 21	Limoges - Le Puy de Dôme, 245km	Coppi	Coppi
Stage 22	Clermont-Ferrand - Vichy, 63km TT	Magni	Coppi
Stage 23	Vichy - Paris, 354km	Antonin Rolland	Coppi

In a nutshell

First finishes at l'Alpe d'Huez and le Puy de Dôme
Introduction of the combativity award

Results

Overall

1st: Fausto Coppi, Italy, 4807km in 151h 57' 20" (32.233km/h)
2nd: Stan Ockers, Belgium, @ 28' 17"
3rd: Bernardo Ruiz, Spain, @ 34' 38"
4th: Gino Bartali, Italy, @ 35' 25"
5th: Jean Robic, France, @ 35' 36"
6th: Fiorenzo Magni, Italy, @ 38' 25"
7th: Alex Close, Belgium, @ 38' 32"
8th: Jean Dotto, France, @ 48' 01"
9th: Andrea Carrea, Italy, @ 50' 28"
10th: Antonio Gelabert, Spain, @ 58' 16"

(78th: Henri Parret, France (Afrique du Nord) 7h 15' 09")

Mountains

1st: Fausto Coppi, Italy, 92
2nd: Antonio Gelabert, Spain, 69
3rd: Jean Robic, France, 60

Team

1st: Italy 455h 56' 50"
2nd: France @ 25' 16"
3rd: Belgium @ 55' 36"

<< 1951 ||