The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of the
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
, one of cycling's
Grand Tours
In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the ''Grand Tours'', and all three races are similar in ...
. The race was composed of 21 stages and a prologue. It started on 11 July in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
before taking an anti-clockwise route through France to finish in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
on 2 August.
Marco Pantani
Marco Pantani (; 13 January 1970 – 14 February 2004) was an Italian road racing cyclist, widely regarded as the greatest climbing specialist in the history of the sport by measures of his legacy, credits from other riders, and records. He rec ...
of won the overall
general classification
The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumulat ...
, with 's
Jan Ullrich
Jan Ullrich (; born 2 December 1973) is a German former professional road bicycle racer. Ullrich won gold and silver medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Sydney. He won the 1999 Vuelta a España and the HEW Cyclassics in fro ...
, the defending champion, and rider
Bobby Julich
Robert Julich ( ), popularly called Bobby Julich, (born on November 18, 1971, in Corpus Christi, Texas) is an American former professional road bicycle racer who last rode for Team CSC in the UCI ProTour racing series. He got his international ...
finishing on the podium in second and third respectively.
The general classification leader's yellow jersey was first awarded to
Chris Boardman
Christopher Miles Boardman, (born 26 August 1968) is a British former racing cyclist. A time trial and prologue specialist, Boardman won the inaugural men's World time trial championship in 1994, won the individual pursuit gold medal at the 19 ...
of the team, who won the prologue in Dublin. Following a crash by Boardman on stage 2 that caused his withdrawal, Ullrich's
sprinter teammate
Erik Zabel
Erik Zabel (; born 7 July 1970) is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced most of his career with Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cycl ...
took the race lead. He lost it the next stage to 's
Bo Hamburger
Bo Hamburger (born 24 May 1970 in Frederiksberg) is a Danish former professional road racing cyclist. He retired in 2006.
Biography
After ending his career, Hamburger started a building company and a bike shop. He was the leading directeur spor ...
, who took it after being in a
breakaway. The day after, the yellow jersey switched to another rider from the same breakaway, Boardman's teammate
Stuart O'Grady
Stuart O'Grady (born 6 August 1973) is a retired Australian professional road bicycle racer, who rode as a professional between 1995 and 2013. A former track cyclist, O'Grady and Graeme Brown won a gold medal in the Men's Madison at the 2004 ...
, who took vital seconds from time bonuses gained in
intermediate sprint
This is a glossary of terms and jargon used in cycling, mountain biking, and cycle sport.
For ''parts of a bicycle'', see List of bicycle parts.
0–9
; 27.5 Mountain bike: A mountain bike with wheels that are approximately in diameter and a ...
s. He held it for a further three stages, until pre-race favourite Ullrich won stage 7's individual time trial, moving him into the overall lead. The next day,
Laurent Desbiens of finished in a breakaway with a large enough margin to put him in the yellow jersey. Ullrich regained the race lead two stages later as the Tour went into the Pyrenees. Following his poor showing in the opening week, Pantani placed second and first, respectively, on the two Pyreneean stages. He then won stage 15, the first in the Alps, to replace Ullrich in the yellow jersey, and kept it until the race's conclusion.
Zabel won his third consecutive Tour
points classification
The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called ''intermediate sprints''. The points cl ...
and Julich's teammate
Christophe Rinero
Christophe Rinero (born 29 December 1973 in Moissac) is a former French professional road racing cyclist. His sporting career began with CA Castelsarrazin. Rinero's greatest achievements have been to win the Tour de l'Avenir in 1998 and the Kin ...
, fourth overall, was the winner of the
mountains classification
The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a femal ...
. Ullrich was the
best young rider and the
most combative was 's
Jacky Durand
Jacky Durand (born 10 February 1967 in Laval, Mayenne) is a French former professional road bicycle racer. Durand had an attacking style, winning the Tour of Flanders in 1992 after a breakaway, and three stages in the Tour de France.
Durand tu ...
. The
team classification The team classification is one of the different rankings for which competitors can compete in a multiple stage cycling race. It differs from the other usual rankings (general classification, points, king of the mountain and best young rider competi ...
was won by .
Tom Steels
Tom Steels (born 2 September 1971) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer, specialising in sprint finishes and one-day races. He was one of the top sprinters in the peloton.
Steels competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, ...
of won the most stages, with four.
The race was marred throughout by a doping scandal, known as the
Festina affair
The Festina affair was a series of doping scandals within the sport of professional cycling that occurred during and after the 1998 Tour de France. The affair began when a large haul of doping products was found in a support car belonging to ...
. Before the Tour began,
Willy Voet
Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scre ...
, an assistant of the
Festina team, was arrested at the Franco-Belgian border when doping products were found in his car. The affair broadened and the team was expelled after top personnel admitted to widespread doping. Police raids on numerous teams during the course of the race led to two riders' strikes and the withdrawal of several teams and riders. Due to the controversy, the race became known by the nickname "Tour de Farce". In July 2013, retrospective tests for
recombinant EPO made in 2004 were made public, revealing that 44 out of 60 samples returned positive tests.
Teams
![Dublín - Trinity College - 20170826172210](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Dubl%C3%ADn_-_Trinity_College_-_20170826172210.jpg)
The organisers of the Tour,
Amaury Sport Organisation
The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) is part of the French media group Éditions Philippe Amaury. It organises the Tour de France and other cycling races, as well as golf, running, sailing and off-road motorsport events. The president of ASO is Je ...
(ASO), cut the number of
teams from 22 to 21 for the 1998 Tour, to reduce the number of crashes in the opening week of the race seen in recent editions, caused by the large number of riders.
The first round of squads that were invited were the first sixteen teams in the
ranking system
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second.
In order theory, mathematics, this is known as a Strict weak ordering ...
of the ''
Union Cycliste Internationale
The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland.
The UCI issues racing ...
'' (UCI), cycling's governing body, on 1 January 1998, provided that they were still in the top twenty after transfers were factored into the calculation.
All these sixteen teams fulfilled this requirement. On 19 June, the ASO gave
wildcard
Wild card most commonly refers to:
* Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games
* Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...
invitations to , , and , with receiving a special invitation. The presentation of the teams – where the members of each team's roster are introduced in front of the media and local dignitaries – took place outside the Front Gate of
Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
in Ireland on the evening before the
prologue
A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...
stage
Stage or stages may refer to:
Acting
* Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions
* Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage"
* ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper
* Sta ...
, which began at the college.
Each squad was allowed a maximum of nine riders, resulting in a start list total of 189 riders.
Of these, 51 were riding the Tour de France for the first time. The riders came from 22 countries, with the majority of them coming from France, Italy and Spain.
() was the youngest rider at 21 years and 353 days on the day of the prologue, and the oldest was
Massimo Podenzana
Massimo Podenzana (born 29 July 1961 in La Spezia) is an Italian former road racing cyclist. Podenzana won stages in both the Giro d'Italia, and the Tour de France, as well as a variety of other cycling classics.
Major results
;1986
:1st, ...
() at 36 years and 347 days. The cyclists had the youngest average age while the riders on had the oldest.
The teams entering the race were:
Qualified teams
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Invited teams
*
*
*
*
*
Pre-race favourites
Jan Ullrich
Jan Ullrich (; born 2 December 1973) is a German former professional road bicycle racer. Ullrich won gold and silver medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Sydney. He won the 1999 Vuelta a España and the HEW Cyclassics in fro ...
() was the defending champion. He had won the
1997 edition's overall
general classification
The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumulat ...
by over nine minutes. His Telekom team was considered as "clearly the squad to beat", having won the previous two editions with
Bjarne Riis
Bjarne Lykkegård Riis (; born 3 April 1964), nicknamed ''The Eagle from Herning'' ( da, Ørnen fra Herning), is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who placed first in the 1996 Tour de France. For many years he was the owner and lat ...
and Ullrich respectively. The 1997 Tour had seen a contest for leadership between Telekom's two captains, but for 1998 this had been resolved in Ullrich's favour. During the winter break, Ullrich's training was impaired by the consequences of the fame and fortune that came with his Tour win,
and his weight had increased from to . In March 1998, ''
El País
''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...
'' headlined an article with "Ullrich is fat", which highlighted that he was still over the weight he had during the previous Tour.
His preparation suffered further when he was forced to retire from
Tirreno–Adriatico
Tirreno–Adriatico, nicknamed the "Race of the Two Seas", is an elite road cycling stage race in Italy, run between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic coasts. Traditionally held in the early part of the season, it is considered to be an important prep ...
with a cold.
However, Ullrich performed well in both the
Tour de Suisse
The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...
and the
Route du Sud
The Route d'Occitanie is a road bicycle race with 4 stages held annually in Southern France. It was first held in 1977 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. It is usually held a week before the Tour de France ...
directly before the start of the Tour, erasing doubts over his form.
He was therefore thought to be the clear favourite going into the 1998 Tour,
with ''El País'' going so far as to write that "we can no longer speak of an open Tour, of a deck of suitors. There is talk of Ullrich, and then of the others."
The route of the race was considered to be an advantage to Ullrich as well, with many time-trial kilometres and comparatively few mountain passes.
The veteran Riis, who had raced the 1997 Tour with a cold, was seen as a capable backup option for the team.
The strongest challenge was expected to come from ,
which led the UCI team ranking prior to the start of the Tour.
Their leading rider,
Richard Virenque
Richard VirenqueRichard Virenque's name is pronounced Ree-shah Vee-rahnk. Virenque considers himself a man of the South but pronounces his name in standard French. Confusion is caused by the southern habit of pronouncing "en" as "ang" or "eng", ...
, had finished second to Ullrich the year before. The two long
individual time trial
An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa a cronometro'' "stopwatch stage"). There are also track-b ...
s were expected not to be in Virenque's favour, since he did not excel in the discipline.
He was however a very good
climber, having won the
mountains classification
The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a femal ...
in the four previous Tours. The team was further strengthened by the arrival of
Alex Zülle
Alex Zülle (born 5 July 1968) is a Swiss former professional road bicycle racer. During the 1990s he was one of the most successful cyclists in the world, winning the 1996 and 1997 Vuelta a España, taking second place in the 1995 and the 1 ...
in the 1998 season, winner of the two previous editions of the three-week
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
of Spain, the
Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the r ...
, who was considered to be a competitor for overall victory in his own right. He was a leading pre-race favourite at Italy's Grand Tour, the
Giro d'Italia,
one month earlier, winning two of the three time trial stages and leading the race before he faltered badly in the final mountain stages to end the race in 14th overall.
Another possible contender from Festina was
Laurent Dufaux
Laurent Dufaux (born 20 May 1969 in Montreux, Switzerland) is a former professional road cyclist from 1991 to 2004. He was the Swiss National Road Race champion in 1991.
Major results
;1990
: 9th Giro dell'Emilia
;1991
: 1st Road race, Natio ...
, who had finished fourth overall in
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
and ninth in 1997.
Marco Pantani
Marco Pantani (; 13 January 1970 – 14 February 2004) was an Italian road racing cyclist, widely regarded as the greatest climbing specialist in the history of the sport by measures of his legacy, credits from other riders, and records. He rec ...
() was considered the "dominant climber in the sport" at the time.
In June, he had taken an "exceptionally impressive" overall victory at the Giro.
Of his three appearances in the Tour up to that point, he had finished third in two of them, including in 1997. When the Tour's route was announced in October 1997, Pantani expressed dissatisfaction with the number of time trials and the fact that the race featured only two mountain-top finishes. Since the route was not to his liking, he originally had shown no interest in riding the race. Following his victory at the Giro, Pantani raced only once, a
criterium
A criterium, or crit, is a bike race consisting of several laps around a closed circuit, the length of each lap or circuit ranging from about 400 m to 10,000 m.
Overview
Race length can be determined by a number of laps or total time ...
race in
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
. His decision to ride the Tour was not made until
Luciano Pezzi, his closest confidant and an important figure at Mercatone Uno, died suddenly in late June. Pantani decided to go to the Tour in honour of Pezzi, but had done very little training beforehand. A further disadvantage to Pantani was his lack of a strong
domestique
In road bicycle racing, a domestique is a rider who works for the benefit of their team and leader, rather than trying to win the race. In French, ''domestique'' translates as "servant".However, in French, the term used is ''équipier''. In I ...
, unlike Ullrich and Virenque.
A returning pre-race favourite from the 1997 Tour was
time trialist
A time trialist is a road bicycle racer who can maintain high speeds for long periods of time, to maximize performance during individual or team time trials. The term ''cronoman'', or ''chronoman'', is also used to refer to a time trialist.
Detail ...
Abraham Olano
Abraham Olano Manzano (born 22 January 1970 in Anoeta, Gipuzkoa) is a Spanish retired professional road racing cyclist, who raced between 1992 and 2002. He won the World Road Championship in 1995, and the World Time Trial Championship in 19 ...
; in that race, he won the final time trial stage and placed fourth overall.
He led the experienced team, who took
Miguel Induráin
Miguel Induráin Larraya (; born 16 July 1964) is a retired Spanish road racing cyclist. Induráin won five Tours de France from 1991 Tour de France, 1991 to 1995 Tour de France, 1995, the fourth, and last, to win five times, and the only five- ...
to his five straight Tour wins between
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
and
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
, and had been seen as his successor.
His weakness was thought to be his lack of strength on steep climbs. In his final race leading up to the Tour, the
Volta a Catalunya
The Volta a Catalunya (; en, Tour of Catalonia, es, Vuelta a Cataluña, link=no) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain.
It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of th ...
, he performed poorly in the high mountains,
and as a result was only seen as a podium contender.
Banesto also fielded
José María Jiménez
Jose María Jiménez Sastre (February 6, 1971 in El Barraco, Spain - December 6, 2003 in Madrid) was a professional road bicycle racer. During his career he excelled as a climber, winning numerous mountain stages. His nickname was "El Chava". ...
, who as a strong mountain rider was considered a "major threat".
The final rider noted as a leading contender, named "the outsider", was the team leader
Laurent Jalabert
Laurent Jalabert (born 30 November 1968) is a French former professional road racing cyclist, from 1989 to 2002.
Affectionately known as ''"Jaja"'' (slang for a glass of wine; when he continued drinking wine as a professional, the nickname stuck ...
, a complete
all-rounder
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...
who excelled in all road cycling disciplines. Although he was the
reigning time trial world champion and the clear first in the UCI individual ranking before the Tour,
he had only aimed to match his overall placing of fourth in 1995.
The riders also named as outside favourites for overall victory were
Michael Boogerd
Michael Boogerd (born 28 May 1972) is a Dutch former professional road bicycle racer. He was one of the leaders of a generation of Dutch cyclists in the late 1990s and early 2000s, together with teammate Erik Dekker and female cyclist Leontien ...
(),
riders
Francesco Casagrande
Francesco Casagrande (born 14 September 1970 in Florence) is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist. Casagrande was a professional cyclist between 1992 and 2005.
Biography
He was a proven performer in the Grand Tours and the major o ...
and
Bobby Julich
Robert Julich ( ), popularly called Bobby Julich, (born on November 18, 1971, in Corpus Christi, Texas) is an American former professional road bicycle racer who last rode for Team CSC in the UCI ProTour racing series. He got his international ...
,
Evgeni Berzin
Evgeni Valentinovich Berzin (; born 3 June 1970 in Vyborg, Russia) is a Russian former road cyclist.
Coming from track cycling, where he successfully represented the Soviet Union at World Championships, he moved to Italy in 1992 and turned prof ...
(),
Fernando Escartín
Fernando Escartín Coti (born 24 January 1968) is a Spanish former road racing cyclist. Between 1995 and 2000 he came in the top 10 of the Tour de France five times and in that same time period finished on the podium in 2nd place at the Vuelta a ...
(), and
Chris Boardman
Christopher Miles Boardman, (born 26 August 1968) is a British former racing cyclist. A time trial and prologue specialist, Boardman won the inaugural men's World time trial championship in 1994, won the individual pursuit gold medal at the 19 ...
().
Route and stages
![Col du Galibier 3 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Col_du_Galibier_3_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The route of the 1998 Tour de France was officially announced during a presentation at the
Palais des congrès in Paris on 23 October 1997.
First negotiations about a potential start of the race in Ireland took place in October 1996, with the Irish government securing funding of IR£2 million to host the event. The opening stages (known as the ''
Grand Départ'') in Ireland were confirmed in early April 1997. Irish officials expected the race to bring in IR£30 million to the local economy. It was the first and so far only time that the Tour has visited Ireland.
The race paid tribute to two famous former Irish professional cyclists: on the day before the prologue, a commemoration service was held in
Kilmacanogue
Kilmacanogue () is a village in north County Wicklow, Ireland.
Location and transport
The village lies on the junction of the R755 road to Roundwood and the N11 road, southeast of Bray town centre. It lies between the Little Sugar Loaf t ...
for
Shay Elliott, the first Irish rider to ride the Tour and win a stage, and during stage 2 of the race, the route went through
Carrick-on-Suir
Carrick-on-Suir () is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It lies on both banks of the River Suir. The part on the north bank of the Suir lies in the civil parish of "Carrick", in the historical barony of Iffa and Offa East. The part on the so ...
, the hometown of
Sean Kelly, four-time winner of the
Tour's points classification. Stage 2 also commemorated the 200th anniversary of French troops landing at
Killala Bay
Killala Bay ( ga, Cuan Chill Ala) is a bay on the west coast of Ireland between County Mayo and County Sligo. It is situated between Kilcummin Head to the west and Lenadoon Point to the east. and is the estuary for the River Moy. The village ...
during the
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influence ...
.
The 1998 Tour was pushed back one week from its original start date, so as not to overlap too much with the
1998 FIFA World Cup
The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...
, also held in France, which ended on 12 July, one day after the prologue. The -race lasted 23 days, including the rest day, and ended on 2 August.
The longest
mass-start stage was the fourth at , and stage 20 was the shortest at .
The race contained three individual time trials, one of which was the prologue, totalling . Of the remaining stages, twelve were officially classified as flat, two as mountain and five as high mountain.
There were only two summit finishes, which were both at ski resorts, one at
Plateau de Beille
Plateau de Beille (Occitan language, Occitan: ''Plan de Belha'') is a ski resort in the Pyrenees. It is situated in the Ariège (department), Ariège Departments of France, department, and in the Regions of France, region of the Occitania (administ ...
on stage 11 and another on stage 15 at
Les Deux Alpes
Les 2 Alpes () is a ski resort in the French '' department'' of Isère, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The village sits at and lifts run to . It has the largest skiable glacier in Europe and is France's second oldest ski resort behind Chamonix. It h ...
.
The
highest point of elevation in the race was at the summit of the
Col du Galibier
The Col du Galibier (el. ) is a mountain pass in the southern region of the French Dauphiné Alps near Grenoble. It is the eighth highest paved road in the Alps, and recurrently the highest point of the Tour de France.
It connects Saint-Mi ...
mountain pass on stage 15.
It was among five ''
hors catégorie
''Hors catégorie'' (HC) is a French term used in stage bicycle races to designate a climb that is "beyond categorization". The term was originally used for those mountain roads where cars were not expected to be able to pass.
The HC climb is the ...
'' (beyond category) rated climbs in the race.
Cycling journalist
Samuel Abt considered the route easier than the 1997 edition.
Tour director
Jean-Marie Leblanc
Jean-Marie Leblanc (born 27 July 1944, in Nueil-sur-Argent, now Nueil-les-Aubiers, Deux-Sèvres) is a French retired professional road bicycle racer who was general director of the Tour de France from 1989 to 2007, when he reached pensionable ...
countered criticism by Virenque and Pantani that the race was not mountainous enough, saying: "The course is tough enough with 23 mountains. That is eight more than last year."
The Tour started with a prologue time trial around the streets of
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
. Stage 1 was a loop that returned to the city, with the following stage travelling down the Irish eastern coast to
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
.
The riders then travelled to France by plane, with the team vehicles and equipment following by sea. Just as the year before, the Tour took a counter-clockwise route through France. The course in France started in
Roscoff
Roscoff (; br, Rosko) is a commune in the Finistère département of Brittany in northwestern France.
Roscoff is renowned for its picturesque architecture, labelled (small town of character) since 2009. Roscoff is also a traditional departure ...
in the north-western region of
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
, with three stages taking the race to the centre of the country at
Châteauroux
Châteauroux (; ; oc, Chasteurós) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French.
Climate
Ch ...
. Stage 6 moved the Tour into the
Massif Central
The (; oc, Massís Central, ; literally ''"Central Massif"'') is a highland region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaus. It covers about 15% of mainland France.
Subject to volcanism that has subsided in the last 10,00 ...
highlands, which hosted the next stage. Two transitional stages to
Pau then placed the race in the foothills of the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
, where two stages took place. Following the rest day, a three-stage journey crossed the south to three further stages in the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
. The next stage took the Tour through the
Jura Mountains
The Jura Mountains ( , , , ; french: Massif du Jura; german: Juragebirge; it, Massiccio del Giura, rm, Montagnas da Jura) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the Frenc ...
to Switzerland, with the following stage crossing back over the border to
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
, where the penultimate stage took place. After a long transfer to the outskirts of Paris, the race ended with the
Champs-Élysées stage.
Race overview
Pre-Tour revelations
On 4 March 1998, a truck belonging to the Dutch team was seized by
customs officer
A customs officer is a law enforcement agent who enforces customs laws, on behalf of a government.
Canada
Canadian customs officers are members of the Canada Border Services Agency. It was created in 2003 and preceded by the Canada Customs and ...
s in
Reims
Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne.
Founded by ...
, France, revealing 104 vials of recombinant
erythropoietin
Erythropoietin (; EPO), also known as erythropoetin, haematopoietin, or haemopoietin, is a glycoprotein cytokine secreted mainly by the kidneys in response to cellular hypoxia; it stimulates red blood cell production (erythropoiesis) in the bo ...
(EPO), a drug with performance-enhancing effects. The two
mechanics
Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to objects r ...
in the truck were released and the vials were taken by the police, who said they had more "important matters" to be concerned with. During the
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, a race held two weeks before the start of the Tour,
Christophe Moreau
Christophe Moreau (born 12 April 1971 in Vervins) is a French former professional road racing cyclist. For many years Moreau was the primary French contender for the general classification in the Tour de France: he finished in the top 12 in the G ...
of Festina tested positive for the anabolic steroid
mesterolone
Mesterolone, sold under the brand name Proviron among others, is an androgen and anabolic steroid (AAS) medication which is used mainly in the treatment of low testosterone levels. It has also been used to treat male infertility, although this ...
. The UCI accepted Festina's explanation that the positive test was a result of the influence of a team masseur, and Moreau was allowed to start the Tour de France.
Three days before the start of the Tour, on 8 July,
Willy Voet
Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scre ...
, a ''
soigneur
A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races whether amateur or professional – and the supporting personnel. Cycling teams are most important in road bicycle racing, whic ...
'' (team assistant) with the Festina squad, was stopped by customs officers driving along a back road on the
Franco–Belgian border. A routine check revealed that he carried a large quantity of performance-enhancing drugs with him. He was thereafter placed under arrest, initially claiming they were "for personal use". The following day, police carried out a search of Festina's headquarters in
Meyzieu
Meyzieu (; frp, Mêsiô) is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. It is a large suburb of Lyon, situated 13 km east of the city centre on the left bank of the Rhône. Before 1967, it was part of t ...
, close to Lyon. On the day before the prologue, a judicial inquiry was opened by the public prosecutor's office and Voet was held for investigation, with the story also breaking to the media. The Tour's organisation as well as Festina were quick to dismiss the news as having nothing to do with the race.
Early stages in Ireland
![1998 Tour de France, Prologue map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/1998_Tour_de_France%2C_Prologue_map.png)
Chris Boardman covered the route of the prologue time trial fastest with a time of 6:12.36 minutes, gaining his third Tour prologue victory. Olano finished second, four seconds slower. Third to sixth place went to Jalabert, Julich, Moreau, and Ullrich, all five seconds behind Boardman. Marco Pantani meanwhile had not bothered to preview the course and finished 181st out of the 189 starters, 48 seconds slower than the winning time. Boardman was awarded the yellow and green jerseys as the leader of both the general and points classification respectively.
Tom Steels
Tom Steels (born 2 September 1971) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer, specialising in sprint finishes and one-day races. He was one of the top sprinters in the peloton.
Steels competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, ...
outsprinted
Erik Zabel
Erik Zabel (; born 7 July 1970) is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced most of his career with Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cycl ...
in stage 1's
bunch sprint
This is a glossary of terms and jargon used in cycling, mountain biking, and cycle sport.
For ''parts of a bicycle'', see List of bicycle parts.
0–9
; 27.5 Mountain bike: A mountain bike with wheels that are approximately in diameter a ...
finish. Steels came to the Tour with the full support of his squad for the sprints, unlike Zabel's who were focused on Ullrich's pursuit for overall victory.
Mario Cipollini
Mario Cipollini (; born 22 March 1967), often abbreviated to "Cipo", is a retired Italian professional road cyclist most noted for his sprinting ability, the longevity of his dominance (his first pro win came in 1988, his last in 2005; 170 p ...
(), a favourite for the stage win, was held up from the end when he was involved in a crash with his teammate,
Frederic Moncassin. Steels took the lead of the points classification from Boardman, who retained the overall lead.
Steels's teammate
Stefano Zanini was the first of a seven-rider
breakaway group to reach the summit of the
Wicklow Gap
Wicklow Gap () is one of the highest Irish mountain passes served by an asphalted road. It is located in County Wicklow, Ireland.
Geography
The pass is opened between Tonelagee (Nort east) and Turlough Hill / Camaderry (South). It connects ...
mountain pass, claiming the Tour's first available mountains classification points and the first
polka-dot
Red polka dots on a yellow background
Girl wearing polka dot dress
Polish ceramics
German ceramics
Polka dot is a pattern consisting of an array of large filled circles of the same size.
Polka dots are commonly seen on children's clothing, ...
jersey.
Unlike other general classification favourites, who always rode at the front of the
peloton
In a road bicycle race, the peloton (from French, originally meaning 'platoon') is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by riding close ( drafting or slipstreaming) to (particularly behind) other riders. The reductio ...
(main group), Pantani spent the first days of the Tour at the back, surrounded by his teammates. This almost cost him, when during stage 2, which was raced largely on the wide
N25 road,
crosswind
A crosswind is any wind that has a perpendicular component to the line or direction of travel. This affects the aerodynamics of many forms of transport. Moving non-parallel to the wind's direction creates a crosswind component on the object and th ...
s split the field into several
echelons. Pantani was caught out and only came back when yellow jersey-wearer Boardman crashed heavily. In the aftermath, the peloton slowed down, allowing Pantani to catch back up. Boardman meanwhile hit his head badly on a stone wall beside the road. He was taken to hospital and had to abandon the Tour. rider
Ján Svorada
Ján Svorada (born 28 August 1968 in Trenčín) is a retired Slovak and Czech road racing cyclist.
Svorada was born in Czechoslovakia; when that country split up in 1993, Svorada raced for Slovakia until 1996, when he started racing for the Cz ...
was involved in a crash with to go, but was able to recover and win the bunch sprint finish. Zabel, who before the stage stood in eighth position overall, had collected enough time bonuses in the
intermediate sprint
This is a glossary of terms and jargon used in cycling, mountain biking, and cycle sport.
For ''parts of a bicycle'', see List of bicycle parts.
0–9
; 27.5 Mountain bike: A mountain bike with wheels that are approximately in diameter and a ...
s to take the yellow jersey.
Move to France and evolving doping scandal
![Richard VIRENQUE](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Richard_VIRENQUE.jpg)
's
Jens Heppner
Jens Heppner (born 23 December 1964) is a German former road bicycle racer. He wore the pink jersey as leader of the general classification during the 2002 Giro d'Italia. Although he rode for Telekom during ten years, he has consistently denied ...
won stage 3 from a two-rider sprint with
Xavier Jan of , after the pair had escaped late from a nine-rider breakaway.
Bo Hamburger
Bo Hamburger (born 24 May 1970 in Frederiksberg) is a Danish former professional road racing cyclist. He retired in 2006.
Biography
After ending his career, Hamburger started a building company and a bike shop. He was the leading directeur spor ...
of , who won two of the three intermediate sprints whilst in the escape group, took the overall lead. Svorada took the lead of the points classification, while Festina's
Pascal Hervé
Pascal Hervé (born 13 July 1964) is a former French road racing cyclist. He competed in the individual road race at the 1992 Summer Olympics and raced as a professional from 1994 to 2001. Pascal now lives in Montreal, were he is co-owner of a ...
led the mountains classification.
The second and third-placed riders in the now much-changed general classification also came from the breakaway, with
George Hincapie
George Anthony Hincapie (born June 29, 1973) is an American former racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 1994 and 2012. Hincapie was a key domestique of Lance Armstrong. Hincapie was also a domestique for Alberto Contador in 2007 a ...
() two seconds down on Hamburger, and
Stuart O'Grady
Stuart O'Grady (born 6 August 1973) is a retired Australian professional road bicycle racer, who rode as a professional between 1995 and 2013. A former track cyclist, O'Grady and Graeme Brown won a gold medal in the Men's Madison at the 2004 ...
() a further second behind. Hincapie and O'Grady went head to head for the time bonuses in stage 4's three intermediate sprints in pursuit of the race lead. O'Grady won two of them to end the day with an eleven-second overall advantage over both Hincapie and Hamburger. The stage was won by
Jeroen Blijlevens
Jeroen Johannes Hendrikus Blijlevens (born 29 December 1971) is a retired road bicycle racer from the Netherlands, who was a professional rider from 1994 to 2004. He most recently worked as a directeur sportif for UCI Women's WorldTeam , and has ...
(TVM) from an uphill bunch sprint at
Cholet
Cholet (, , probably from Latin language, Latin ''cauletum'', "cabbage") is a Communes of France, commune of western France in the Maine-et-Loire Departments of France, department. With 54,307 inhabitants (2019), it is the second most populous c ...
in the
Loire Valley. Cipollini suffered his third crash of the Tour at the end of stage 4, accumulating eight separate injuries, but was able to avoid the multiple crashes in the next stage to win the bunch sprint finish. Svorada was disqualified for causing a crash at the end of the stage, losing the points he had earned from his tenth-place finish. Svorada's green jersey went to Zabel, who finished second in the stage. Cipollini won the following stage, from a bunch sprint into
Brive-la-Gaillarde
Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of oc, Briva la Galharda) is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the agglomeration was 7 ...
.
As the ferry reached French soil overnight into 14 July, the day of stage 3, all team vehicles were meticulously searched at customs. During the day, Voet admitted to police that he had been following team orders, with Festina's team doctor
Eric Rijkaert
Eric Rijkaert also written Eric Rijckaert (194327 January 2001) was born in Oostwinkel, Belgium. He was a former Belgian sports physician and worked with the Festina cycling team. He was said to be at the heart of the Festina affair of 1998 that ...
publicly denying he administered any banned substances. The next day, the team manager Bruno Roussel and Rijkaert were taken into police custody. Before the start of stage 5, Jean-Marie Leblanc announced at a press conference that the professional licences held by Roussel and Rijkaert had been provisionally suspended by the UCI. At the same time, Festina riders Richard Virenque, Laurent Brochard and Laurent Dufaux stated their intention to carry on racing. During stage 6, Roussel and Rijkaert confessed to systematic doping in the Festina squad. This led to the Tour organisation to expel the team ahead of the following stage.
Before the start of stage 7 Virenque, on behalf of Festina, held a private meeting with Leblanc to plead for the team to be allowed to continue, but to no avail. As a result, the team mechanics for Festina stopped getting the bikes ready and returned them to storage. Following a private team meeting Festina managers then decided to allow their riders to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to defy this expulsion and show up at the start gate for their time trial and soon after this meeting Festina mechanics began preparing the bikes and loading them on to the team cars as the press swarmed in amusement.
Armin Meier
Armin Meier (born 3 November 1969) is a Swiss former cyclist. He was involved the Festina affair, and was part of the team that was disqualified from the 1998 Tour de France. Despite never testing positive for any drugs, he admitted to the use o ...
was the first scheduled Festina rider, at 12:34, but his time came and went with no rider showing up to the start gate. Still there was speculation that Festina was going to defy the Tour organizers and the reality of a confrontation only got closer as team cars left their hotel and headed for the start gate. Being a strong and organized team their next rider was not due to go off until 14:18 with
Neil Stephens
Neil Stephens (born 1 October 1963 in Canberra) is an Australian former road bicycle racer. He won the Australian national road race title in 1991 and 1994.
He is a Tour de France stage winner and is one of the relatively few riders to have ...
. Stephens did not appear at the start gate as he and the rest of the team were in yet another meeting, once again with
Jean-Marie Leblanc
Jean-Marie Leblanc (born 27 July 1944, in Nueil-sur-Argent, now Nueil-les-Aubiers, Deux-Sèvres) is a French retired professional road bicycle racer who was general director of the Tour de France from 1989 to 2007, when he reached pensionable ...
, General Director of the Tour de France who informed Team Festina that he was standing by the decision to expel them and they would not be allowed to start the time trial. It was following this meeting that Richard Virenque held his now infamous emotional press conference where he and the rest of the team grudgingly accepted the expulsion.
Stage 7, the hilly and technical first long individual time trial, was won by Ullrich, 1:10 minutes ahead of 's
Tyler Hamilton
Tyler Hamilton (born March 1, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racer. He is the only American rider to win one of the five Monuments of cycling, taking Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2003. Hamilton became a professional cycli ...
, with Julich in third a further eight seconds behind. O'Grady was fifteenth with a deficit of 3:17 minutes, and lost the yellow jersey to Ullrich, who was now 1:18 minutes in front of Hamburger and Julich on the same time in second and third respectively. Pantani finished thirty-third, 4:21 minutes slower than Ullrich, he said later that he had held himself back in anticipation of the upcoming Pyrenees. Zanini regained the polka dot jersey.
Stage 8 was held in very high temperatures. A group of six riders reached the finish 7:45 minutes ahead of the peloton. The sprint was won by
Jacky Durand
Jacky Durand (born 10 February 1967 in Laval, Mayenne) is a French former professional road bicycle racer. Durand had an attacking style, winning the Tour of Flanders in 1992 after a breakaway, and three stages in the Tour de France.
Durand tu ...
of , who had been in an escape group on every road stage so far. Four riders from the group gained enough time to move to the top of the general classification, with 's
Laurent Desbiens taking the yellow jersey. Temperatures increased to a high of during the following stage, which was won by rider
Léon van Bon
Léon Hendrik Jan van Bon (born 28 January 1972) is a retired road racing cyclist from the Netherlands, who won the silver medal in the men's points race at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He won his first major race at the profess ...
in a final sprint, contested between a four-man breakaway. The closing field followed 12 seconds later. Second-place finisher
Jens Voigt
Jens Voigt (; born 17 September 1971) is a German former professional road bicycle racer and, upon retirement, became a cycling sports broadcast commentator. During his cycling career, Voigt raced for several teams, the last one being UCI ProTe ...
() collected enough mountains classification points from within the breakaway to take the polka-dot jersey. Two-time stage winner Cipollini dropped out during this stage.
Pyrenees
![Corniche Aubisque Soulor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Corniche_Aubisque_Soulor.jpg)
Stage 10 saw the race move into the high mountains, starting with the Pyrenees. On the way to
Luchon, four mountain passes had to be crossed: the
Col d'Aubisque
The Col d'Aubisque ( oc, Còth d'Aubisca) (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the Pyrenees south of Tarbes and Pau in the department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the Aquitaine region of France.Chany, Pierre (1988), La Fabuleuse Histoire du T ...
, the
Col du Tourmalet
Col du Tourmalet (; elevation ) is one of the highest paved mountain passes in the French Pyrenees, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées. Sainte-Marie-de-Campan is at the foot on the eastern side and the ski station La Mongie two-thirds of ...
, the
Col d'Aspin
Col d'Aspin ( oc, Còth d'Aspin) (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the French Pyrenees in the department of the Hautes-Pyrénées. It connects Sainte-Marie-de-Campan, in the upper Adour valley, with Arreau, on the River Neste.
Details of the cl ...
and finally the
Col de Peyresourde
The Col de Peyresourde ( oc, Còth de Pèira Sorda) (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the central Pyrenees on the border of the department of Haute-Garonne and Hautes-Pyrénées in France. It is situated on the D618 road between Bagnères-de-L ...
, followed by of downhill to the finish line.
A total of 30 riders fell on the wet and foggy descent of the Aubisque, including overall contenders Olano, Jalabert and Francesco Casagrande, with the latter being one of six that retired from the race.
A three-rider breakaway of
Cédric Vasseur
Cédric Vasseur (born 18 August 1970) is a French former professional road racing cyclist, and current general manager of UCI WorldTeam . As a rider, Vasseur competed between 1993 and 2007 for the Novemail–Histor, , , and squads. Vasseur was c ...
() and teammates
Rodolfo Massi
Rodolfo Massi (; born 17 September 1965) is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer. He won a stage in 1996 Giro d'Italia and 1998 Tour de France, but was expelled from the 1998 Tour de France after illegal doping was found in his hot ...
and
Alberto Elli
Alberto Elli (born 9 March 1964) is an Italian former road racing cyclist, who wore the yellow jersey for 4 days in the 2000 Tour de France.
Elli was called up late for the 2000 Tour de France, and after a group of 12 cyclists stayed away from th ...
formed by the foot of the Tourmalet. The pace set by halfway up this climb split the peloton, with yellow jersey wearer Desbiens dropped. Massi moved clear from his fellow riders in the breakaway group on the steep section midway on the -long last climb, and also at the same point after, a move by Ullrich formed a small group of elite riders which included pre-race favourites Pantani, Julich, Riis, Boogerd, Escartín and Jiménez. Close to the top, Pantani launched a successful attack and summitted with an advantage of 42 seconds, but was unable to catch the soloing Massi on the descent, who took the stage victory as well as the lead of the mountains classification.
Pantani finished second, 33 seconds behind. Ullrich followed with the other favourites, a further 23 seconds back, to regain the yellow jersey, while Julich moved up to second overall.
The following stage 11 featured the first mountain-top finish of the 1998 Tour. The peloton agreed not to begin racing until after the first , when they stopped to pay their respects at the memorial to
Fabio Casartelli
Fabio Casartelli (16 August 1970 – 18 July 1995) was an Italian cyclist and an Olympic gold medalist. He was killed in a crash on the descent of the Col de Portet d'Aspet, France, during the 15th stage of the 1995 Tour de France.
Amateu ...
on the
Col de Portet d'Aspet, who crashed and died there during the 1995 Tour. As the field reached the bottom of the climb to the finish at Plateau de Beille, Ullrich had a
tyre puncture. Pantani was unaware of this and was about to attack, before being stopped by his teammate
Roberto Conti, as it breaches the
unwritten rules of the peloton to attack a rider when they have mechanical issues. Having waited for Ullrich to regain contact, Pantani waited until from the finish to attack, and after passing the sole breakaway rider,
Roland Meier
Roland Meier (born 22 November 1967) is a Swiss former cyclist. He competed in two events at the 1992 Summer Olympics. On 28 August 2001, he was suspended for eight months because he tested positive for EPO.
Major results
;1990
: 1st Stage 1 ...
(), he took the stage win. Following Meier and a group of five led by Julich, Ullrich crossed the finish line in eighth place, 1:40 minutes down on Pantani. After the two stages in the Pyrenees, Ullrich led the general classification, 1:11 minutes ahead of Julich, with both Jalabert and Pantani 3:01 minutes down in third and fourth. Olano, a notable pre-race favourite, withdrew from the Tour halfway through the stage.
Transition stages and rider unrest
![Laurent JALABERT (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Laurent_JALABERT_%28cropped%29.jpg)
After the rest day, stage 12 followed a flat course between
Tarascon-sur-Ariège
Tarascon-sur-Ariège (, literally ''Tarascon on Ariège''; Languedocien: ''Tarascon d’Arièja'') is a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primari ...
and
Cap d'Agde
Cap d'Agde () is a seaside resort on France's Mediterranean coast. It is located in the commune of Agde, in the Hérault department within the region of Occitanie. Cap d'Agde was planned by architect Jean Le Couteur as part of one of the large ...
. The riders were unhappy with the looming expulsion of the TVM team, against which the police had renewed their investigation which was started in March. Likewise, journalists going through waste containers at team hotels, searching for evidence of performance-enhancing drugs, drew anger from the peloton. Some riders also spoke out against the announcement by the UCI to move forward the introduction of new health tests. As the riders lined up with their bikes at the start of the stage, Jalabert broadcast a statement on their behalf on the race's official station, Radio Tour, saying "We are fed up with being treated like cattle. So we are going to behave like cattle."
Following this, the majority of the riders sat down on the road and refused to continue, while others willing to start stood around, unsure what to do. The instigators of the strike were Jalabert, Blijlevens,
Max Sciandri (), and
Prudencio Induráin () as well as ONCE's team manager
Manolo Saiz
Manuel "Manolo" Saiz Balbás (born 16 October 1959 in Torrelavega, Cantabria) is the former team manager of one of the most successful Spanish professional road bicycle racing teams, first called Team ONCE, then Liberty Seguros-Würth, Astana ...
. Leblanc negotiated with the team managers and they voted 14–6 in agreement to begin the stage. The peloton and vehicles slowly set off, but a Jalabert-led group of about 40 refused. They eventually relented and caught up to the rest ahead, and the race started, exactly two hours after the scheduled time. It was at this point that the stage was officially started.
After about , Jalabert then went on the attack over a short climb with his brother
Nicolas
Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to:
People Given name
* Nicolas (given name)
Mononym
* Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer
* Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer
Surname Nicolas
* Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...
() and
Bart Voskamp
Bertus ("Bart") Voskamp (born 6 June 1968 in Wageningen, Gelderland) is a retired road bicycle racer from the Netherlands, who was a professional rider from 1993 to 2005. He competed in five Tours de France. He also competed in the team time tria ...
(TVM),
with the group building up a lead of about five minutes.
[ Team Telekom gave chase at a high pace, temporarily putting Pantani into difficulty as crosswinds created echelons in the peloton. The trio of escapees were eventually brought back. Steels took his second stage win of the Tour in a bunch sprint finish, but withheld any celebrations following the events of the stage.][ The stage, shortened by to account for the delay caused by the strike, was run at an average speed of , the third-fastest stage in Tour history.
Stage 13 saw a breakaway by six riders, among them ]Daniele Nardello
Daniele Nardello (born 2 August 1972 in Varese) is a retired Italian professional road racing cyclist. His career ran from 1994 to 2009, with highlights including winning the 2001 Italian national road race championship, the 2003 Züri-Metzgete ...
and Andrea Tafi, both of Team . They worked together at the finish to ensure Nardello took Mapei's fourth stage win. At the only classified climb of the day, Luc Leblanc
Luc Leblanc (born 4 August 1966 in Limoges, France) is a retired French professional road cyclist. He was World Road Champion in 1994.
Biography
In 1978, a drunk driver hit Luc Leblanc, aged 11, and his younger brother Gilles Leblanc, aged 8. ...
() put in an attack, but was brought back by Riis. The following day's stage brought the Tour to Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
at the foot of the Alps. The stage was won by O'Grady, again from a breakaway. In the press conference after, Ullrich was asked whether his team would be capable of supporting him in the Alps and, after initially appearing upbeat, he ended his response with: "Even if I don't have the yellow jersey in Paris, I want to give my compliments to the team". Pantani, who still stood at fourth overall, was quoted saying: "My main goal now is to win in Les Deux-Alpes."
Alps and second strike
Stage 15 was the first of three Alpine stages. After a warm start in Grenoble, the weather soon deteriorated, with cold temperatures, rain and fog impeding the riders. The route contained four classified climbs, including the ''hors categorie'' Col de la Croix de Fer
Col de la Croix de Fer ( en, Pass of the Iron Cross) (el. 2067 m.) is a high mountain pass in the French Alps linking Le Bourg-d'Oisans and Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.
Details of climb
The approach from the northeast from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne i ...
and Col du Galibier, and ending with a summit finish at Les Deux Alpes. On the Croix de Fer, Massi bridged over to a breakaway group and scored maximum points for the mountains classification, a feat he repeated on the second climb of the day, the Col du Télégraphe
Col du Télégraphe is a mountain pass in the French Alps situated above the Maurienne valley between the eastern end of the massif d'Arvan-Villards and the massif des Cerces.
The pass links Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne to the north and Valloire t ...
. By this point, the lead group contained only Massi, Christophe Rinero
Christophe Rinero (born 29 December 1973 in Moissac) is a former French professional road racing cyclist. His sporting career began with CA Castelsarrazin. Rinero's greatest achievements have been to win the Tour de l'Avenir in 1998 and the Kin ...
() and Marcos-Antonio Serrano
Marcos-Antonio Serrano Rodríguez (born 8 September 1972 in Redondela, Province of Pontevedra) is a professional cyclist from Galicia, Spain. Turning professional in 1993, he joined the Kelme team and then in 1999 the lottery-sponsored '' Organi ...
(). Behind them in the group of the main favourites, the high climbing tempo put Jalabert into difficulty, which ultimately saw him drop far down the general classification by the end of the stage. After the short descent of the Télégraphe, the race reached the Galibier, where Riis cracked following his work reeling back attackers, leaving Ullrich without a teammate. With remaining to the summit of the Galibier, Pantani made the decisive move of the race, attacking from the group of favourites. By the summit of the climb, Pantani had passed all the breakaway riders and was out in front alone, leading by ten seconds. Ullrich reached the top 2:41 minutes behind Pantani. Crucially, unlike Pantani, he did not wear a raincoat during the descent. He subsequently suffered from the cold temperatures and hyperglycemia
Hyperglycemia is a condition in which an excessive amount of glucose circulates in the blood plasma. This is generally a blood sugar level higher than 11.1 mmol/L (200 mg/dL), but symptoms may not start to become noticeable until even ...
for the rest of the stage. The breakaway caught up to Pantani on the descent of the Galibier, forming a group of strong climbers. Before the final climb to Les Deux Alpes, Ullrich had a tyre puncture and was distanced by the group of chasers. On the climb, Pantani soon moved clear of his group and took the stage victory, almost two minutes ahead of Massi in second place. Ullrich finished with teammates Udo Bölts
Udo Bölts (born 10 August 1966) is a retired German racing cyclist, the brother of Hartmut Bölts. Bölts confessed publicly in 2007 to having used EPO and growth hormones in 1996 and 1997.
Biography
Bölts was born in Heltersberg and began h ...
and Riis 8:57 minutes after Pantani, who took over the yellow jersey. He led Julich by 3:53 minutes, with Escartín in third place in the general classification, ahead of Ullrich.
Before the following stage to Albertville
Albertville (; Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile'') is a subprefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France.
It is best known for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. In 2018, the commune had ...
, speculation spread that Ullrich would abandon the race. Pantani's Mercatone Uno team coped well in defending his race lead over the four lesser categorised climbs, until the race reached the ''hors categorie'' final climb, the Col de la Madeleine
Col de la Madeleine (el. 1,993 m.) is a high mountain pass in the Alps in the department of Savoie in France which connects La Chambre in Maurienne with La Léchère in Tarentaise. The pass is closed from November to the beginning of June. It h ...
, when Ullrich attacked, with only Pantani able to follow. Ullrich led the duo up the rest of the climb as they passed the breakaway riders and increased their advantage over the chasing Julich, who was accompanied by two teammates. The pair held their lead of around two minutes along the final of flat, where at the finish, Ullrich outsprinted Pantani to the stage win. Pantani now led Julich by 5:42 minutes, with Ullrich third, 14 seconds behind Julich.
Another police raid on the TVM team and news about alleged mistreatment of the Festina riders while in custody led to another riders' strike on stage 17. After a brief stop of two minutes at the start, the riders rode slowly to the first intermediate sprint of the day, where they climbed off their bikes and sat on the road. Jalabert climbed into his team car and retired from the race. Meanwhile, Jean-Marie Leblanc negotiated with the riders and collected guarantees from a civil servant from the French Ministry of the Interior
Minister of the Interior (french: Ministre de l'Intérieur; ) is a prominent position in the Government of France. The position is equivalent to the interior minister in other countries, like the Home Secretary in the United Kingdom, the Minis ...
, who was visiting the Tour as a guest, that police treatment of the riders would improve. Nevertheless, the entire ONCE team followed their leader Jalabert and abandoned the race. As the riders slowly got moving again, they ripped off their race numbers as a further sign of protest. Luc Leblanc retired later in the stage. At the feed zone, the Banesto squad joined their fellow Spanish-based ONCE team in quitting, as did the Italian-based Riso Scotti team. The field reached the finishing town, Aix-les-Bains
Aix-les-Bains (, ; frp, Èx-los-Bens; la, Aquae Gratianae), locally simply Aix, is a commune in the southeastern French department of Savoie. , two hours behind schedule. The TVM team was allowed to cross the line first as a sign of solidarity; the stage was annulled and no results counted. Overnight, two more Spanish-based teams, Kelme and Vitalicio Seguros, also decided not to carry on in the Tour. This caused the retirement of the fourth rider overall, Escartín of Kelme.
Conclusion
Before stage 18 into Neuchâtel
, neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier
, twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...
in Switzerland, police held Massi, who was still the leader in the mountains classification, for questioning after corticoid
Corticosteroids are a class of steroid hormones that are produced in the adrenal cortex of vertebrates, as well as the synthetic analogues of these hormones. Two main classes of corticosteroids, glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, are involv ...
s were allegedly found in his room during a search of the Casino team hotel. He was therefore unable to start the stage, and the lead of the mountains classification was passed to the second placed rider, Rinero. Victory went to Steels, who outsprinted Zabel and O'Grady at the finish. The remaining five riders from TVM exited the race on Swiss soil before the start of the following day. Stage 19 went back into France and saw a breakaway of 13 riders. Four riders broke away from the lead group to contest the stage win between them, with Magnus Bäckstedt
Magnus Bäckstedt (born 30 January 1975)L'Équipe, France, 12 April 2004. is a Swedish former professional road bicycle racer. His most notable achievement in cycling is winning Paris–Roubaix in 2004.
Early life
Born in Linköping, Östergöt ...
() coming out on top.
The penultimate stage saw the last individual time trial of the race to Le Creusot
Le Creusot () is a Communes of France, commune and industrial town in the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department, Regions of France, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, eastern France.
The inhabitants are known as Creusotins. Formerl ...
. Ullrich won the stage, 1:01 minutes ahead of Julich, to move into second place overall. Pantani finished the stage third, 2:35 minutes behind Ullrich, effectively sealing his victory in the general classification. The final stage on the Champs-Élysées in Paris was won by Steels from a bunch sprint, while Pantani finished safely in the peloton to secure the Tour win. Ullrich ended the Tour in second place, with a deficit of 3:21 minutes, with Julich a further 47 seconds behind in third. Pantani was greeted on the podium by Felice Gimondi
Felice Gimondi (; 29 September 1942 – 16 August 2019) was an Italian professional racing cyclist. With his 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the ...
, who had been invited by Jean-Marie Leblanc to present to the crowd the first Italian winner since his own victory in 1965
Events January–February
* January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years.
* January 20
** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...
. Zabel won his third consecutive points classification with a total of 327, 97 ahead of O'Grady in second. Although Pantani won two high mountain stages, the mountains classification was won by the more consistent Rinero, whose total of 200 points was 25 more than that of second-placed Pantani. Due to the high number of abandons because of the Festina affair, only 96 riders reached the finish in Paris. Only Team Telekom and U.S. Postal Service ended the Tour with all nine riders still racing.
Doping
The prevalence of EPO in the cycling peloton had been a topic of debate since the early 1990s. The first news stories about the drug appeared in 1994. The UCI gave the task of developing a test for EPO to Francesco Conconi, a professor at the University of Ferrara
The University of Ferrara ( it, Università degli Studi di Ferrara) is the main university of the city of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the First World War the University of Ferrara, with more than 5 ...
, Italy, and a member of the UCI Medical Commission. In June 1996, Conconi, seemingly unable to find a definite test for the substance, proposed to the UCI to introduce a test for an athlete's hematocrit
The hematocrit () (Ht or HCT), also known by several other names, is the volume percentage (vol%) of red blood cells (RBCs) in blood, measured as part of a blood test. The measurement depends on the number and size of red blood cells. It is norm ...
level instead, which tested how many red cells
Red blood cells (RBCs), also referred to as red cells, red blood corpuscles (in humans or other animals not having nucleus in red blood cells), haematids, erythroid cells or erythrocytes (from Greek ''erythros'' for "red" and ''kytos'' for "holl ...
were in a rider's blood. During the UCI's meeting in Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
, Switzerland, on 24 January 1997, the procedure, labelled as a "health test", limiting the allowed hematocrit level to 50 per cent, was introduced. If a rider returned a value higher than 50 per cent, they were not allowed to compete for a two-week period. However, as cycling journalist Alasdair Fotheringham noted, "the 50 per cent threshold became a target to aim for" instead of a reliable deterrent to using EPO.
The doping scandal that occurred throughout the Tour became known as the Festina affair
The Festina affair was a series of doping scandals within the sport of professional cycling that occurred during and after the 1998 Tour de France. The affair began when a large haul of doping products was found in a support car belonging to ...
, starting with the arrest of Voet. Initially, the suspicion only surrounded the Festina and TVM teams, but later investigations and retrospective tests revealed the doping abuse was far more widespread. Even while the race was running, media sources coined nicknames for it, such as the "Tour de Farce" or "Tour du Dopage" (Tour of Doping). Following Festina's expulsion from the race, the police investigation against the TVM team in March was made public by ''Le Parisien
''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH.
Histor ...
'' and the case reopened.
Many riders in the Tour reacted to the developing scandal by hiding or destroying evidence of doping. Rolf Aldag
Rolf Aldag (born 25 August 1968 in Beckum, West Germany) is a former professional road bicycle racer who rode for Team Telekom from 1993 to 2005. He raced in 10 Tour de France, 1 Giro d'Italia and 5 Vuelta a España. Prior to joining Telekom, h ...
() said he flushed his doping products down the toilet before the race began in Dublin. His teammate Bjarne Riis said in his autobiography that he disposed of his vials of EPO in the toilet after stage 3. Likewise, the U.S. Postal team flushed their drugs down the toilet following Voet's arrest, according to Tyler Hamilton. According to Jörg Jaksche, the Polti squad hid their supply of EPO in a vacuum cleaner on the team bus; Jaksche believed that most Italian teams kept their drugs during the race as well. Philippe Gaumont
Philippe Gaumont (22 February 1973 – 17 May 2013) was a French professional road racing cyclist. He earned a bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics, 100 km team time trial. In 1997 he won the Belgian classic Gent–Wevelgem and h ...
claimed in his autobiography that the Cofidis team were told by team management to destroy their substances on the day the Festina team was expelled, with the riders subsequently going into a forest to dispose of the evidence. Julich said he quit doping altogether during the 1998 Tour.
After their arrests, Voet, Roussel, and Rijckaert gave the police confessions detailed the doping practices at Festina. Roussel said that one per cent of the team's budget (around €40,000) was used to pay for EPO and human growth hormone
Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in h ...
s. The Festina riders were placed under custody and brought into individual prison cells, and allegedly subjected to cavity search
A body cavity search, also known simply as a cavity search, is either a visual search or a manual internal inspection of body cavities for prohibited materials (contraband), such as illegal drugs, money, jewelry, or weapons. Body cavities frequen ...
es. On 24 July, four Festina riders confessed to taking performance-enhancing drugs, with the first being Alex Zülle. The only riders to deny the allegations were Virenque and Neil Stephens
Neil Stephens (born 1 October 1963 in Canberra) is an Australian former road bicycle racer. He won the Australian national road race title in 1991 and 1994.
He is a Tour de France stage winner and is one of the relatively few riders to have ...
. Examinations carried out on the nine Festina riders on 23 July, with the results being published on 28 November, revealed that eight riders took EPO and four amphetamines. Virenque was the only rider not to test positive in these tests.
On 23 July, the Tour's rest day, TVM's manager Cees Priem and team doctor Andrei Mikhailov were arrested by the police. At the beginning of August, team ''soigneur'' Johannes Moors was taken into custody as well. Priem and Moors were released on 10 August. The TVM riders were also questioned by the police on 4 August and held for about 12 hours, before they were released. However, no banned substances were found during the raid at TVM's team hotel during the Tour. At ONCE and BigMat, police did find performance-enhancing drugs during their raids. ONCE maintained that the substances were for medical use of the team staff. Police called in twelve riders from BigMat for questioning along with the ''directeur sportif
A ''directeur sportif'' (French for sporting director, although the original French term is often used in English-language media; plural ''directeurs sportifs'') is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is se ...
'' and some ''soigneurs'' a week after the end of the Tour because of "330 bottles and ampoules of drugs" found in the team's truck.
The legal investigation into doping at the 1998 Tour was given to judge Patrick Keil shortly after the race concluded. He handed in his 5539-page report on the matter at the beginning of July 1999, which laid the groundwork for subsequent legal proceedings against team staff and riders. Virenque confessed during a court hearing concerning the Festina affair, on 24 October 2000. Virenque received a nine-month racing ban and a suspended prison sentence. Voet was sentenced to a suspended ten months in prison and a fine of 3,000 franc. Roussell received a one-year suspended sentence and a 50,000 franc fine. Lesser verdicts were handed out to "two masseurs, the team's logistics manager, the team doctor at the Spanish ONCE team, Nicolas Terrados, and two pharmacists".
During the Tour, 108 tests for performance-enhancing drugs were carried out by France's main anti-doping laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry
Châtenay-Malabry () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located 10.8 km (6.7 mi) from the center of Paris.
The French writer Chateaubriand lived in the estate ''Vallée-aux-Loups'' at Châtenay-Malabry. The Ga ...
. All of them were negative. In 2004, 60 remaining anti-doping samples given by riders during the 1998 Tour were tested retrospectively for recombinant EPO by using three recently developed detection methods. The tests produced 44 positive results and 9 negatives, with the remaining 7 samples not returning any result due to sample degradation. At first, the rider names with a positive sample were not made public, as it had only been conducted as scientific research.
In July 2013, the anti-doping committee of the French Senate
The Senate (french: Sénat, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. The French Senate is made up of 34 ...
decided it would benefit the current doping fight to shed full light on the past, and so decided – as part of their "Commission of Inquiry into the effectiveness of the fight against doping" report – to publish all sample IDs along with the result of the retrospective test. This revealed, that the 9 negative samples belonged to 5 riders (of whom two nevertheless had confessed using EPO in that Tour), while the 44 positive samples belonged to 33 riders – including race winner Pantani, Ullrich, Julich, and Zabel. Julich had already admitted in 2012 that he had used EPO from August 1996 to July 1998.
Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were several classifications in the 1998 Tour de France. The most important was the general classification
The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumulat ...
, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey; the winner of this classification is considered the winner of the Tour. Jan Ullrich wore the yellow jersey in the prologue as the winner of the previous edition. Time bonuses were given during the first half of the Tour to the first three finishers on each stage, excluding mountain stages and time trials. The winner received a 20-second bonus, the second finisher 12 seconds and the third rider 8 seconds. During the first half of the race, intermediate sprints also had time bonuses, with bonuses of 6, 4, and 2 seconds given to the first three riders to cross the line.
Additionally, there was a points classification
The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called ''intermediate sprints''. The points cl ...
, in which cyclists got points for finishing among the best in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints. In flat stages, the first 25 finishers received points, 35 for the stage winner down to 1 point for 25th place. In medium mountain stages, the top-20 finishers received points, with 25 points for the stage winner down to 1 point. In mountain stages, the first 15 finishers received points, with 20 points given to the stage winner. In time trials, 15 points were given to the winner, down to 1 point for the tenth-placed finisher. Points could also be won during intermediate sprints along the race route, with 6, 4, and 2 points for the first three riders across the line respectively. The cyclist with the most points led the classification, and was identified by a green jersey.
There was also a mountains classification
The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a femal ...
. Most stages of the race included one or more categorised climbs, in which points were awarded to the riders that reached the summit first. The climbs were categorised as fourth-, third-, second- or first-category and ''hors catégorie'', with the more difficult climbs rated lower. The first rider to cross the summit of an ''hors catégorie'' climb was given 40 points (down to 1 point for the 15th rider). Twelve riders received points for first category climbs, with 30 for the first rider to reach the summit. Second-, third- and fourth-category climbs gave 20, 10 and 5 points to the first rider respectively. The cyclist with the most points led the classification, wearing a white jersey with red polka dots.
The young rider classification Young rider classification (french: classement général des jeunes) is a cycling jersey competition in multi-day stage race events, such as the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and many others, which awards the current leader by overall time for rid ...
, which was not marked by a jersey, was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders under 26 years were eligible. This meant that in order to compete in the classification, a rider had to be born after 1 January 1973. 34 out of the 189 starters were eligible. Jan Ullrich won the classification for the third time in a row.
For the team classification The team classification is one of the different rankings for which competitors can compete in a multiple stage cycling race. It differs from the other usual rankings (general classification, points, king of the mountain and best young rider competi ...
, the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added; the leading team was the team with the lowest total time.
In addition, there was a combativity award
The combativity award is a prize given in road bicycle racing to a stage's or the overall race's most aggressive rider.
References
{{cycling-stub
Cycling jerseys ...
given after each mass-start stage to the cyclist considered the most combative. The winner of the award wore a red number bib during the next stage, this feature was introduced for the first time in 1998. The decision was made by a jury composed of journalists who gave points. The cyclist with the most points from votes in all stages led the combativity classification. Jacky Durand won this classification, and was given overall the super-combativity award. The Souvenir Henri Desgrange
The Souvenir Henri Desgrange is an award and cash prize given in the yearly running of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour races. It is won by the rider that crosses a particular point in the race, mostly the summits of the highest a ...
was given in honour of Tour founder Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 – 16 August 1940) was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set twelve world track cycling records, including the hour record of on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France.
Yo ...
to the first rider to pass the summit of the Col du Galibier on stage 15. The winner of the prize was Marco Pantani.
*In stage one, Abraham Olano
Abraham Olano Manzano (born 22 January 1970 in Anoeta, Gipuzkoa) is a Spanish retired professional road racing cyclist, who raced between 1992 and 2002. He won the World Road Championship in 1995, and the World Time Trial Championship in 19 ...
, who was second in the points classification, wore the green jersey, because first placed Chris Boardman
Christopher Miles Boardman, (born 26 August 1968) is a British former racing cyclist. A time trial and prologue specialist, Boardman won the inaugural men's World time trial championship in 1994, won the individual pursuit gold medal at the 19 ...
wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification.
Final standings
General classification
Points classification
Mountains classification
Young rider classification
Team classification
Combativity classification
UCI Road Rankings
Riders in the Tour competed individually, as well as for their teams and nations, for points that contributed towards the UCI Road Rankings, which included all UCI races. Points were awarded to all riders in the general classification, to the top ten finishers in each stage, and each yellow jersey given at the end of a stage. The points accrued by Marco Pantani moved him from fifth position to fourth in the individual ranking, with Laurent Jalabert, who did not finish the Tour, holding his lead. retained their lead of the team ranking, ahead of second-placed . Italy remained as leaders of the nations ranking, with Switzerland second.
Aftermath
In the direct aftermath of the Tour, there were many raids and searches of cycling teams and many riders questioned by police. Two meetings to discuss the issue of doping were held shortly after the Tour: the first, between the UCI, race organisers and teams, took place four days after the Tour ended in Paris; the second, on 11 August, was between the UCI and representatives of the riders. Neither meeting yielded results that had "any long-term effect". The riders voiced concern over the length of races and demanded changes to be made, while the question of a general amnesty for riders who took banned substances was also briefly discussed. In a press communiqué released on 13 August, the UCI claimed that "it is difficult to do more than is already being done" in response to doping and that the blood tests enforced in 1997 enabled the UCI "to control the EPO problem", a claim that Alasdair Fotheringham later described as bordering "on the delusional".
Festina returned to racing shortly after the Tour de France, with the crowd showing positive responses to the team at the Vuelta a Burgos
Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos is an elite professional road bicycle racing event held annually in the Burgos province of Spain. The men's Vuelta a Burgos has been a multi-day stage race as part of the UCI Europe Tour since 2005. In 2019, a multi-day wo ...
. The squad then competed in the last Grand Tour of the year, the Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the r ...
, where Alex Zülle failed to defend his title, but won a stage and finished eighth overall.
Following the fallout from the 1998 edition, the 1999 Tour de France
The 1999 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 3 to 25 July, and the 86th edition of the Tour de France. It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong originally won the event, the United States Anti-D ...
was dubbed by the organisers as the "Tour of Renewal", with the ASO publicly stating that they would welcome a lower average speed by around . This did not come to pass however, as the average speed rose again and race winner Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 Tour de ...
was stripped of his title in 2012 following a lengthy investigation into doping practises. ASO barred the TVM team from competing in the 1999 race. Richard Virenque and Manolo Saiz were originally banned from the race, before the UCI required the race organisers to allow both to participate, considering that the ASO had failed to comply with the registration period. This dictates that both organisers and teams need to register the invitation and their willingness to participate thirty days before the start of the event. Festina was allowed to start the next Tour, but the ASO handed out a warning to the team before the race, reminding them of their ability to disqualify them as they had in 1998.
Fotheringham noted nearly twenty years after the 1998 Tour that ever since, extraordinary performances in cycling have been viewed with suspicion, because of the sport's now cemented association with doping. Until the revelations of the Lance Armstrong doping case
The Lance Armstrong doping case was a major doping investigation that led to retired American road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong being stripped of his seven consecutive Tour de France titles, along with one Olympic medal, and his eventual admis ...
, the 1998 Tour de France stood as the biggest doping scandal in sport. One of the most significant effects of the Festina affair was the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key ...
(WADA) in December 1999.
In the media
In 2018, a film centering around the 1998 Tour, titled ''The Domestique'' and to be directed by Kieron J. Walsh and written by Ciarán Cassidy, was announced. Production was taken over by Blinder Films, with the movie receiving €800,000 funding through Screen Ireland
Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland, formerly known as Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board, is the Republic of Ireland's state development agency for the Irish film, television and animation industry. It provides funds for the developm ...
, the Irish state development agency. The film has since been renamed ''The Racer'' and secured funding from Screen Flanders, the Film Fund Luxembourg, Eurimages
Eurimages is a cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, established in 1989. Eurimages promotes independent filmmaking by providing financial support to feature-length fiction, animation, and documentary films. In doing so, it encourages ...
, the BAI Sound & Vision Fund, and RTÉ
(RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...
. The film premiered at the 2020 South by Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
film festival.
See also
* 1998 in sports
* List of doping cases in cycling
The following is an incomplete list of doping cases and recurring accusations of doping in professional cycling, where doping means "use of physiological substances or abnormal method to obtain an artificial increase of performance." It is neither ...
* Operación Puerto doping case
Operación Puerto (''Operation Mountain Pass'') is the code name of a still unfinished Spanish Police operation against the pro sports doping network of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. It started in May 2006, which resulted in a scandal that involved se ...
– a Spanish Police operation against mainly doping in professional cycling that began in 2006
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
*
1998 Tour de France
at Cyclingnews.com
Cyclingnews.com is a website providing cycling news and race result owned by Future.
History
In 1995 Australian Bill Mitchell, a keen cyclist and professor of economics at the University of Newcastle, created the website titled "Bill’s Cycli ...
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The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
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The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...