Unlike in previous years, the route was no longer around the perimeter of France, and the Massif Central mountains were visited for the first time.

[3] The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,360 m (7,740 ft) at the summit of the Col d'Izoard mountain pass on stage 20.

Koblet protested against the result, and argued that the intermediate timings showed that Bobet could not have won.

The Tour de France jury agreed that Bobet's time was off by one minute, and Koblet was given the stage victory by 59 seconds.

They worked together for more than 100 km, but couldn't reach Koblet, who won the stage with a margin of more than two and a half minutes.

Van Est was inexperienced in the mountains that showed up in the thirteenth stage, but did his best to defend his lead.

[13] In the next stage, Van Est fell down a ravine while defending his position, and had to abandon the race.

Géminiani crossed the finish line first in that stage, but he was set back to fourth place by the jury.

[2] In the sixteenth stage, that seemed not too hard because there were almost no mountains, Coppi collapsed and lost more than half an hour.

His teammates and former rivals Gino Bartali and Fiorenzo Magni helped him until the end of the stage.

[2] The Mont Ventoux was climbed in the seventeenth stage for the first time in Tour de France history.

After that stage, second-placed rider Géminiani was no longer trying to beat Koblet, but instead focussed on defending his second place against Bobet.

[2] Koblet stayed out of problems for the rest of the race, and won the time trial in the 22nd stage with a large margin; he even overtook Bartali who had started 8 minutes earlier.

[3] Hugo Koblet would be unable to defend his title in the 1952 Tour de France, as he was injured.