List of teams and cyclists in the 1939 Tour de France
List of cyclists
Italy, Germany and Spain did not send teams to the 1939 Tour de France.[1] The Tour organisation were short on participating cyclists, because of this. To solve the problem, they allowed Belgium to send two teams, and France to send four additional regional teams.[2]
The French cyclists had been successful in the 1930s, but their Tour winners were absent in 1939:
1930 and 1932 winner André Leducq had retired in 1938, as had 1931 and 1934 winner Antonin Magne; 1933 winner Georges Speicher did not ride, and 1937 winner Roger Lapébie was injured. This all made the Belgian team favourite.[3]