To avoid these problems, the categories for individual cyclists were removed for the 1938 Tour de France,[3] and the race was contested by national teams.

[4] The big cycling nations in 1938, Belgium, Italy, Germany and France, each sent a team of 12 cyclists.

Other countries, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the Netherlands, sent smaller teams of six cyclists each.

[2] The Italian team was led by Bartali, who had been close to winning the Tour de France in 1937 until he crashed.

The Italian cycling federation had requested him to skip the 1938 Giro d'Italia so he could focus on the Tour de France.

On the descent of the Col d'Aspin, his wheel collapsed, and Félicien Vervaecke and Ward Vissers overtook him.

Bartali came back to finish in third place, but Vervaecke took the lead in the general classification.

[4] In that stage, former winner Georges Speicher was caught holding on to a car, and was removed from the race.

[2] In the fourteenth stage, Bartali attacked again, and gained 17 minutes on Vervaecke and 20 on Vissers.

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

Because of the political tensions in Europe before the Second World War, Italy did not send a team to the 1939 Tour de France, so Bartali was unable to defend his title.