Taking place on the eve of World War II, there was already much animosity in Europe.

Italy, Germany and Spain all declined to send teams to the race, so the 1938 Italian champion Gino Bartali would not be defending his title.

[4] Because Italy, Germany and Spain did not send teams,[5] the Tour organisation were short on participating cyclists.

In the next stage, Romain Maes, who had finished in the same group as Fournier, won the time trial, and captured the lead.

René Vietto, leader of the regional South-East team, was in second place.

In the fourth stage, Vietto got into the winning break, and took over the lead, closesly followed by Mathias Clemens on six seconds.

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

Finally, there were four regional French teams: North-East, West, South-West and South-East.

[21] A few months after Germany had conquered France in the Second World War, Patenôtre sold l'Auto to the Germans.

[23] But the Second World War made it impossible to hold a Tour de France in the next years, although some replacing races were held.

Only in 1947 would the Tour be held again, and Vietto would again play an important role then, holding the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification for 15 of the 21 stages.