The French team was dominant, holding the yellow jersey for the entire race and winning most of the stages.

French cyclist René Vietto rose to prominence by winning the mountains classification, but even more by giving up his own chances for the Tour victory by giving first his front wheel and later his bicycle to his team captain Magne.

The 1934 Tour de France saw the introduction of the split stage and the individual time trial.

There had been time-trial like stages before in the Tour de France, but they had been run as a team time trial.

To counter this, the stages in the Tour de France had started later, so they would end after Paris-Soir had to print their newspapers.

The Paris-Soir sports editor had countered this by starting his own race, the Grand Prix des Nations, run as an ITT.

In addition to this, the winner of the stage received a bonification equal to the difference between him and the second-placed cyclists, with a maximum of two minutes.

[1] The French selectors were criticized for selecting René Vietto, a twenty-year-old rider who had only won some small races.

[1] The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,556 m (8,386 ft) at the summit tunnel of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 7.

After examining the photo finish, both cyclists shared the time bonus, although Le Grevès was named winner.

[1][2] After stage six, before the heavy climbing in the alps, Magne was leading with almost 8 minutes on second-placed Martano.

He won stages 7 and 9, and climbed to third place in the general classification, half an hour behind Magne.

[1] The stages 12 to 14, between the Alps and the Pyrenees, were won by French cyclists, without important changes in the general classification.

Vietto had to wait several minutes to get a replacing front wheel, and lost all chances for the stage victory.

A photographer was present to take a picture of Vietto, weeping with a bike without a front wheel.

Vietto had to wait for the service car to bring him a new bicycle, and finally finished four minutes behind Magne, Martano and Lapébie.

The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey.