The 1960 Tour de France was the 47th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 26 June and 17 July, with 21 stages covering a distance of 4,173 km (2,593 mi). The race featured 128 riders, of which 81 finished, and was won by the Italian Gastone Nencini.

Because Jacques Anquetil was absent after winning the 1960 Giro d'Italia, Roger Rivière became the main favourite. Halfway the race, Rivière was in second place behind Nencini, and with his specialty the time trial remaining, he was still favourite for the victory. When Rivière had a career-ending crash in the fourteenth stage, this changed, and Nencini won the Tour easily.

The 1960 Tour de France was run in the national team format. The four most important cycling nations of the time, Spain, Belgium, France and Italy, each sent a national team with fourteen cyclists. There were also five smaller national teams: a combined Luxembourg/Swiss team, a Dutch team, a West German team, a British team, and a team of Internationals cyclists, all with eight cyclists. Finally, there were five regional teams, also of eight cyclists each. Altogether, 128 cyclists started the race. The West German team, that had been away from the Tour since 1938, was allowed to join again.

The teams entering the race were:

Jacques Anquetil, the winner of the 1957 Tour de France, had won the 1960 Giro d'Italia earlier that year. Anquetil was tired, and skipped the Tour. This made Roger Rivière the French team leader, and the big favourite for the Tour victory.

The 1960 Tour de France started on 26 June in Mulhouse, and had one rest day, in Millau. In previous years, the location of the stage finish and the next stage start had always been close together. In 1960, this changed, when cyclists had to take the train to get from Bordeaux to Mont de Marsan after the ninth stage. 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 16.

The first stage was split in two parts. In the first part, a group of fourteen cyclists cleared from the rest, and won with a margin of over two minutes. In the second part, an individual time trial, Roger Rivière won. The lead in the general classification transferred to Nencini, who had been part of the group of fourteen cyclists. Federico Bahamontes, winner of the 1959 Tour, became ill and left the race in the second stage.

Nencini lost the lead in the third stage to Joseph Groussard. In the fourth stage, a group including Henri Anglade escaped, and Anglade became the new leader. Anglade had already finished in second placed in 1959, and expected to be the team leader now.