Coming into the Tour de France, Simpson was leader of his team; it was the first time since 1929 that company teams were allowed to compete. He finished ninth in the first stage, in a group of twenty-two riders who finished over eight minutes ahead of the rest. Simpson's team finished second to Flandria-Faema-Clément in the stage-2b team time trial; he was in seventh place in the general classification, remaining in the top ten the rest of the first week. During stage 8a he was in a thirty-rider group which gained about six minutes, moving him to second overall behind teammate André Darrigade. At the end of the eleventh stage Simpson was third in the overall, over a minute behind race leader Willy Schroeders (Flandria-Faema-Clément) and fifty-one seconds behind Darrigade. Stage twelve from Pau to Saint-Gaudens, the hardest stage of the 1962 Tour (known as the Circle of Death), was the Tour's first mountain stage. Simpson saw an opportunity to lead the race. The team now solely concentrated on his interests, since Darrigade was a sprinter and would no longer be involved in the general classification. As the peloton reached the Col du Tourmalet, Simpson attacked with a small group of select riders, finishing eighteenth place in a bunch sprint. As he finished ahead of all the other leaders in the general classification, he became the overall new leader of race, and the first British rider to wear the leader's yellow jersey. Simpson lost the lead on the following stage, a short time trial ending with a steep uphill finish at Superbagnères. He finished thirty-first and dropped to sixth overall. On stage nineteen he advanced recklessly descending the Col de Porte in the Alps, crashing on a bend and only saved from falling over the edge by a tree, leaving him with a broken left middle finger. He lost almost eleven minutes in the next stage's time trial, finishing the Tour at Paris' Parc des Princes stadium 17 minutes and 9 seconds behind in 6th place.