After the French national team refused to help Anglade, Bahamontes won the race.

[3] The Spanish team was headed by Federico Bahamontes, who in previous years did not care for flat stages and time trials, and only tried to win the mountains classification.

[3] The defending champion Charly Gaul was again placed in a mixed team of Luxembourgian and Dutch cyclists, and expected little support.

[3] The Italian team did not include Vito Favero and Gastone Nencini, who had performed well in the 1958 Tour.

Their team captain was Ercole Baldini, winner of the 1958 Giro d'Italia, but he was not expected to be able to compete against Gaul, Bahamontes and Anquetil.

[3] The 1959 Tour de France started on 25 June in Mulhouse, and had two rest days, in Bayonne and Saint-Étienne.

[4] The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,770 m (9,090 ft) at the summit of the Col de l'Iseran mountain pass on stage 18.

The favourites let them escape, knowing that they would win enough time back in the mountains, and the group won more than 10 minutes on the rest.

[2] The fifteenth stage was an individual mountain time trial, won by Spaniard Bahamontes.

[3] In the sixteenth stage, Pauwels was in the escaped group, and won enough time to take over the lead in the general classification.

[3] In the eighteenth stage, Gaul was the first one to attack, and reached the top of the Galibier first, but later the other riders got back to him.

This made Anglade the virtual race leader, which was against the wishes of the national team.

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

André Darrigade took the lead by winning the first stage, and remained the leader for the rest of the race.