Roger Walkowiak (pronounced [ʁɔ.ʒe wal.kov.jak]; 2 March 1927 – 6 February 2017) was a French road bicycle racer who won the 1956 Tour de France.

Roger Walkowiak was recruited for the French regional Nord-Est-Centre team, representing the North-east and Centre of France, despite coming from Montluçon in the South-West.

For the last four stages, Walkowiak defended his lead, reaching the finish at the Parc des Princes on 28 July just over a minute ahead of Gilbert Bauvin.

France, however, remained unimpressed and for many years, Walkowiak's name passed into the language, so that do something "à la Walko" meant to succeed unexpectedly or without panache.

When even his customers teased him about winning the Tour, he lost confidence still more and went back to working on a lathe in the car factory in Montluçon that had employed him as a young man.

It took many years to persuade Walkowiak that there was merit in what he had done and, though he lived quietly in south-west France, he did talk about the day he became the unknown who won the world's greatest cycling race.