Throughout the 1961 Tour de France, two of the French national team's riders, André Darrigade and Jacques Anquetil held the yellow jersey for the entirety 21 stages.

[3] Gastone Nencini, who won the previous edition, did not enter in 1961, but Graziano Battistini, his teammate and runner-up of 1960, started the race as leader of the Italian team.

The last outsider was Charly Gaul, winner of the 1958 Tour de France, who rode in the mixed Luxembourg/Swiss team.

[4] The 1961 Tour de France started on 25 June in Rouen, and had one rest day, in Montpellier.

[6] The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,115 m (6,939 ft) at the summit of the Col du Tourmalet mountain pass on stage 17.

[3] The second stage, run in bad weather, featured small roads in Northern France.

[13] In the sixth stage, West German Horst Oldenburg fell down on the descent of the Col de la Schlucht, and the Dutch team captain Ab Geldermans ran into him.

[13] Unlike previous years, the French team continued without fights, and won five of the first eight stages.

His main rival Gaul even lost time in the last stage, and conceded his second place to Guido Carlesi.

Most stages of the race included one or more categorised climbs, in which points were awarded to the riders that reached the summit first.

[21] At the conclusion of the Tour, the entire West/South-West team won the overall super-combativity award, also decided by journalists.

[22][23] As Anquetil had led the race after every stage, there was not much competitiveness, which organiser Jacques Goddet termed a "fiasco".