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The 1956 Tour de France was the 43rd Tour de France, taking place July 5 to July 28, 1956. The total race distance was 22 stages over 4498 km, with riders averaging 36.268 km/h.
There was no previous Tour winner competing for the 1956 title, which had only previously happened in 1903 and 1927. An unknown rider from a regional national team, Roger Walkowiak on the Northeast-Center French team, ended up taking the title. Many Tour fans dismissed the win as being lucky or unworthy at the time, which Walkowiak took hard and did not often speak of his win.
Five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault praised his win saying: There are people who say that Walkowiak should not have won the Tour. They should have been on that Tour! He took the jersey, he lost it and he regained it. He was not a thief. The Tour is not a gift.[1] The Tour was ridden at the fastest average speed to date, over 36 km/h. Walkowiak also became only the second rider, after Firmin Lambot in the 1922 Tour de France, to win without taking a single stage.
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