[1] The British Empire was also represented by the only non-European in the Tour: Canadian Pierre Gachon, who never completed the first stage.

The complete Belgian team (including 1936 and 1939 winner Sylvère Maes) withdraw from the race because of "French chauvinism".

Complaints from the Belgian team included of French spectators throwing stones at the Belgian team, closing train crossings, and throwing pepper in the eyes, and being punished unreasonable strictly (adding extra time in the standing) while French riders were hardly punished at all while being helped.

[2] The Italian team, that had been absent from the 1936 Tour de France, returned in 1937, after Benito Mussolini removed their boycott of the Tour, and selected new star Gino Bartali, who had won the 1936 and 1937 Giro d'Italia, as the Italian team leader.

In the month before the Tour started, Lapébie had undergone surgery for a lumbar hernia, and there were doubts about his form.

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.

[1] In the ninth stage, Sylvère Maes took over the lead, closely followed by Mario Vicini and Roger Lapébie.

[3] Before the start of the fifteenth stage, Lapébie found out that the frame of his bicycle had been sabotaged,[13] causing his handlebars to break off.

When the tour directors gave him 90 seconds penalty time for having been pushed, the margin with Maes grew to more than three minutes, but Lapébie had sensed weakness in the Belgian team, and planned to attack in the next stage.

[1] During that sixteenth stage, Maes had punctured, and had been help by two Belgian cyclists, Gustaaf Deloor and Adolf Braeckeveldt.

The Tour jury then fined Maes with 15 seconds penalty time in the general classification.

Leo Amberg became the first Swiss cyclist to reach the podium of the general classification in the Tour de France.