winnaar tour de france 1998

1998 Tour de France

85th edition: july 11 - august 28, 1998, results, stages with running gc, map, photos and history.

1997 Tour | 1999 Tour | Tour de France database | 1998 Tour Quick Facts | Final GC | Individual stage results with running GC | The Story of the 1998 Tour de France

Quick Facts about the 1998 Tour de France :

The Golden Saying of Epictetus are available as an audiobook here. For the Kindle eBook version, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

3,875 kilometers ridden at an average speed of 39.983 km/hr

The race started in Ireland, where the prologue and first two stages were held. Then the race transferred to Brittany for a counter-clockwise trip around France, finishing in Paris.

189 riders started, 96 finished.

The 1998 Tour was marred by the Festina doping scandal that turned into the greatest crisis in the Tour's history.

1997 winner Jan Ullrich arrived in poor form, allowing 1998 Giro winner Marco Pantani to take huge amounts of time in the mountains, in particular, stage 15 to Les Deux Alpes.

Marco Pantani is the last man to do the Giro-Tour double.

• Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno): 92hr 49min 46sec
• Jan Ullrich (Telekom) @ 3min 21sec
• Bobby Julich (Cofidis) @ 4min 8sec
• Christophe Rinero (Cofidis) @ 9min 16sec
• Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) @ 11min 26sec
• Jean-Cyril Robin (US Postal) @ 14min 47sec
• Roland Meier (Mapei-Bricobi) @ 15min 13sec
• Daniele Nardello (Mapei Bricobi) @ 16min 7sec
• Giuseppe Di Grande (Polti) @ 17min 35sec
• Axel Merckx (Polti) @ 17min 39sec
• Bjarne Riis (Telekom) @ 19min 10sec
• Dariusz Baranowski (US Postal) @ 19min 58sec
• Stéphane Heulot (FDJ) @ 20min 57sec
• Leonardo Piepoli (Saeco) @ 22min 45sec
• Bo Hamburger (Casino) @ 26min 39sec
• Kurt Van Wouwer (Lotto) @ 27min 20sec
• Kevin Livingston (Cofidis) @ 34min 3sec
• Jörg Jaksche (Polti) @ 35min 41sec
• Peter Farazijn (Lotto) @ 36min 10sec
• Andreï Teteriouk (Lotto) @ 37min 3sec
• Udo Bolts (Telekom) @ 37min 25sec
• Laurent Madouas (Lotto) @ 39min 54sec
• Geert Verheyen (Lotto) @ 41min 23sec
• Cedric Vasseur (Gan) @ 42min 14sec
• Evgeni Berzin (FDJ) @ 42min 51sec
• Thierry Bourguignon (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 43min 53sec
• Georg Totschnig (Telekom) @ 50min 13sec
• Benoit Salmon (Casino) @ 51min 18sec
• Alberto Elli (Casino) @ 1hr 13sec
• Philippe Bordenave (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 1hr 5min 55sec
• Christophe Agnolutto (Casino) @ 1hr 11min 3sec
• Oscar Pozzi (Asics) @ 1hr 14min 54sec
• Maarten Den Bakker (Rabobank) @ 1hr 16min 21sec
• Patrick Joncker (Rabobank) @ 1hr 16min 49sec
• Pascal Chanteur (Casino) @ 1hr 19min 32sec
• Massimiliano Lelli (Cofidis) @ 1hr 20min 32sec
• Massimo Podenzana (Mercatone Uno) @ 1hr 20min 47sec
• Viatcheslav Ekimov (US Postal) @ 1hr 22min 40sec
• Denis Leproux (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 1hr 25min 5sec
• Beat Zberg (Rabobank) @ 1hr 26min 8sec
• Lylian Lebreton (Big Mat-Auber) @ 1hr 28min 19sec
• Andrea Tafi (Mapei) @ 1hr 29min 22sec
• Rolf Aldag (Telekom) @ 1hr 29min 27sec
• Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank) @ 1hr 29min 37sec
• Peter Meinert (US Postal) @ 1hr 29min 52sec
• Riccardo Forconi (Mercatone Uno) @ 1hr 30min 33sec
• Fabio Sacchi (Polti) @ 1hr 31min 53sec
• Marty Jemison (US Postal) @ 1hr 34min 27sec
• Nicolas Jalabert (Cofidis) @ 1hr 38min 45sec
• Massimo Donati (Saeco) @ 1hr 38min 59sec
• Tyler Hamilton (US Postal) @ 1hr 39min 53sec
• Simone Borgheresi (Mercatone Uno) @ 1hr 40min 4sec
• George Hincapie (US Postal) @ 1hr 40min 39sec
• Stuart O'Grady (Gan) @ 1hr 46min 4sec
• Filippo Simeoni (Asics) @ 1hr 47min 19sec
• Jens Heppner (Telekom) @ 1hr 50min 43sec
• François Simon (Gan) @ 1hr 52min 41sec
• Frankie Andreu (US postal) @ 1hr 53min 44sec
• Thierry Gouvenou (Big Mat-Auber 93)) @ 1hr 55min 20sec
• Roberto Conti (Mercatone Uno) @ 1hr 55min 33sec
• Laurent Desbiens (Cofidis) @ 1hr 56min 28sec
• Erik Zabel (Telekom) @ 1hr 56min 57sec
• Leon Van Bon (Rabobank) @ 1hr 57min 30sec
• Paul Van Hyfte (Lotto) @ 1hr 58min 2sec
• Jacky Durand (Casino) @ 1hr 59min 42sec
• Christophe Mengin (FDJ) @ 2hr 0min 35sec
• Frédérick Guesdon (FDJ) @ 2hr 5min 8sec
• Wilfried Peeters (Mapei) @ 2hr 6min 16sec
• Rik Verbrugghe (Lotto) @ 2hr 6min 17sec
• Magnus Bäckstedt (Gan) @ 2hr 8min 30sec
• Eddy Mazzoleni (Saeco) @ 2hr 10min 19sec
• Fabio Fontanelli (Mercatone Uno) @ 2hr 11min 37sec
• Stefano Zanini (Mapei) @ 2hr 12min 11sec
• Alain Turicchia (Asics) @ 2hr 14min 12sec
• Mirko Crepaldi (Polti) @ 2hr 15min 5sec
• Diego Ferrari (Asics) @ 2hr 15min 46sec
• Xavier Jan (FDJ) @ 2hr 15min 51sec
• Pacal Lino (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 2hr 16min 13sec
• Fabio Roscioli (Asics) @ 2hr 17min 53sec
• Christian Henn (Telekom) @ 2hr 19min 52sec
• Vjatjeslav Djavanian (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 2hr 21min 31sec
• Rossano Brasi (Polti) @ 2hr 22min 10sec
• Jens Voigt (Gan) @ 2hr 25min 14sec
• Pascal Deramé (US Postal) @ 2hr 26min 25sec
• Tom Steels (Mapei) @ 2hr 26min 30sec
• Eros Poli (Gan) @ 2hr 31min 56sec
• Alecei Sivakov (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 2hr 33min 19sec
• Aart Vierhouten (Rabobank) @ 2hr 35min 6sec
• Robbie McEwen (Rabobank) @ 2hr 36min 32sec
• Paolo Fornaciari (Saeco) @ 2hr 37min 50sec
• Massimiliano Mori (Saeco) @ 2hr 38min 12sec
• Bart Leysen (Mapei) @ 2hr 39min 43sec
• Francesco Frattini (Telekom) @ 2hr 43min 16sec
• Franck Bouyer (FDJ) @ 2hr 43min 45sec
• Mario Traversoni (Mercatone Uno) @ 2hr 44min 2sec
• Damien Nazon (FDJ) @ 3hr 12min 15sec
• Erik Zabel (Telekom): 327 points
• Stuart O'Grady (Gan): 230
• Tom Steels (Mapei-Bricobi): 221
• Robbie McEwen (Rabobank): 196
• George Hincapie (US postal): 151
• François Simon (Gan): 149
• Bobby Julich (Cofidis): 114
• Jacky Durand (Casino): 111
• Alain Turicchia (Asics): 99
• Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno): 90
• Christophe Rinero (Cofidis): 200 points
• Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno): 175
• Alberto Elli (Casino): 165
• Cédric Vasseur (Gan): 156
• Stéphane Heulot (FDJ): 152
• Jan Ullrich (Telekom): 126
• Bobby Julich (Cofidis): 98
• Michael Boogerd (Rabobank): 92
• Leonardo Piepoli (Saeco): 90
• Roland Meier (Cofidis): 89

Team Classification:

• Cofidis: 278hr 29min 58sec
• Casino @ 29min 9sec
• US Postal @ 41min 40sec
• Telekom @ 46min 1sec
• Lotto @ 1hr 4min 14sec
• Polti @ 1hr 6min 32sec
• Rabobank @ 1hr 46min 20sec
• Mapei @ 1hr 59min 53sec
• Big Mat-Auber 93 @ 2hr 3min 32sec
• Mercatone Uno @ 2hr 23min 4sec
• Jan Ullrich (Telekom) 92hr 53min 7sec
• Christophe Rinero (Cofidis) @ 5min 55sec
• Giuseppe Di Grande (Mapei) @ 14min 14sec
• Kevin Levingston (Cofidis) @ 30min 42sec
• Jörg Jaksche (Polti) @ 32min 20sec

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Individual stage results with running GC:

Prologue: Saturday, July 11, Dublin, Ireland 5.6 km Individual Time Trial

• Chris Boardman: 6min 12sec
• Abraham Olano @ 4sec
• Laurent Jalabert @ 5sec
• Bobby Julich s.t.
• Christophe Moreau s.t.
• Jan Ullrich s.t.
• Alex Zulle @ 7sec
• Laurent Dufaux @ 9sec
• Andrei Tchmil @ 10sec
• Viatcheslav Ekimov @ 11sec

GC: Same as Prologue time, there was no time bonus in play in the prologue.

Stage 1: Sunday, July 12, Dublin, Ireland - Dublin, Ireland, 180.5 km.

• Tom Steels: 4hr 29min 58sec
• Erik Zabel s.t.
• Robbie McEwen s.t.
• Gian-Matteo Fagnini s.t.
• Nicola Minali s.t.
• Frederic Moncassin s.t.
• Philippe Gaumont s.t.
• Mario Traversoni s.t.
• François Simon s.t.
• Jan Svorada s.t.

GC after Stage 1:

• Chris Boardman
• Erik Zabel @ 7sec
• Tom Steels @ 9sec
• Laurent Dufaux s.t.

Stage 2: Monday, July 13, Enniscorthy, Ireland - Cork, Ireland, 205.5 km.

• Jan Svorada: 5hr 45min 10sec
• Mario Cipollini s.t.
• Alain Turicchia s.t.
• Tom Steels s.t.
• Emmanuel Magnien s.t.
• Jan Kirsipuu s.t.
• Jeroen Blijlevens s.t.
• Silvio Martinello s.t.

GC after Stage 2:

• Tom Steels @ 7sec
• Abraham Olano @ 8sec
• Laurent Jalabert @ 9sec
• Jan Svorada @ 10sec
• Robbie McEwen @ 11sec

Stage 3: Tuesday, July 14, The Tour returns to France. Roscoff - Lorient, 169 km.

• Jens Heppner: 3hr 33min 36sec
• Xavier Jan s.t.
• George Hincapie @ 2sec
• Bo Hamburger s.t.
• Stuart O'Grady s.t.
• Vicente Garcia-Acosta s.t.
• Pascal Hervé s.t.
• Francisco Cabello s.t.
• Pascal Chanteur @ 5sec
• Fabrizio Guidi @ 1min 10sec

GC after Stage 3:

• Bo Hamburger
• Stuart O'Grady @ 3sec
• Jens Heppner s.t.
• Xavier Jan @ 21sec
• Pascal Hervé @ 22sec
• Vicente Garcia-Acosta @ 23sec
• Pascal Chanteur @ 28sec
• Francisco Cabello @ 47sec
• Erik Zabel @ 1min 2sec

Stage 4: Wednesday, July 15, Plouay - Cholet, 252 km.

• Jeroen Blijlevens: 5hr 48min 32sec
• Andrei Tchmil s.t.
• Lars Michaelsen s.t.
• Maximilian Sciandri s.t.
• Fabio Baldato s.t.

GC after stage 4:

• Stuart O'Grady
• Bo Hampburger @ 11sec
• George Hincapie s.t.
• Jens Heppner @ 14sec
• Xavier Jan @ 32sec
• Pascal Hervé @ 33sec
• Vicente Garcia-Acosta @ 34sec
• Pascal Chanteur @ 39sec
• Francisco Cabello @ 58sec
• Erik Zabel @ 1min 1sec

Stage 5: Thursday, July 16, Cholet - Châteauroux, 228.5 km.

• Mario Cipollini: 5hr 18min 49sec
• Christophe Mengin s.t.
• Andrea Farrigato s.t.
• Fabrizio Guidi s.t.
• Alessio Bongioni s.t.

GC after Stage 5:

• George Hincapie @ 7sec
• Bo Hamburger @ 11sec
• Pacal Hervé @ 33sec
• Erik Zabel @ 45sec

Stage 6: Friday, July 17, Le Châtre - Brive la Gaillarde, 204.5 km.

• Mario Cipollini: 5hr 5min 32sec
• Emmanuele Magnien s.t.

GC after Stage 6:

• George Hincapie @ 9sec
• Bo Hamburger @ 13sec
• Jens Heppner @ 16sec
• Xavier Jan @ 34sec
• Pascal Hervé @ 35sec
• Vicente Garcia-Acosta @ 36sec
• Pascal Chanteur @ 41sec
• Erik Zabel @ 43sec
• Jan Svorada @ 47sec

Stage 7: Saturday, July 18, Meyrignac l'Église- Corrèze 58 km Individual Time Trial.

The Festina team was forced to withdraw from the Tour before the start of the time trial.

• Jan Ullrich: 1hr 15min 25sec
• Tyler Hamilton @ 1min 10sec
• Bobby Julich @ 1min 18sec
• Laurent Jalabert @ 1min 24sec
• Viatcheslav Ekimov @ 1min 40sec
• Abraham Olano @ 2min 13sec
• Evgeni Berzin @ 2min 21sec
• Francesco Casagrande @ 2min 22sec
• Stephane Heulot @ 2min 22sec
• Bo Hamburger @ 2min 29sec

GC after Stage 7:

• Jan Ullrich: 31hr 24min 37sec
• Bo Hamburger @ 1min 18sec
• Laurent Jalabert @ 1min 14sec
• Tyler Hamilton @ 1min 30sec
• Viatcheslav Ekimov @ 1min 46sec
• Vicente Garcia-Acosta @ 1min 50sec
• Stuart O'Grady @ 1min 53sec
• Abraham Olano @ 2min 12sec
• Jens Heppner @ 2min 17sec

Stage 8: Sunday, July 19, Brive la Gaillarde - Montauban, 190.5 km.

• Jacky Durand: 4hr 40min 55sec
• Andrea Tafi s.t.
• Fabio Sacchi s.t.
• Eddy Mazzoleni s.t.
• Laurent Desbiens s.t.
• Joona Laukka s.t.
• Philippe Gaumont @ 1min 34sec
• Erik Zabel @ 7min 45sec
• Serguei Ivanov s.t.

GC after Stage 8:

• Laurent Desbiens
• Andrea Tafi @ 14sec
• Jacky Durand @ 43sec
• Joona Laukka @ 2min 54sec
• Jan Ullrich @ 3min 21sec
• Bo Hamburger @ 4min 39sec
• Laurent Jalabert @ 4min 45sec
• Tyler Hamilton @ 4min 51sec
• Viatcheslav Ekimov @ 5min 7sec

Stage 9: Monday, July 20, Montauban - Pau, 210 km.

• Leon Van Bon: 5hr 21min 10sec
• Jens Voigt s.t.
• Masimilliano Lelli s.t.
• Christophe Agnolutto s.t.
• Erik Zabel @ 12sec

GC after stage 9:

• Laurent Desbiens: 41hr 31min 18sec
• Vicente Garcia-Acosta @ 5min 11sec

Stage 10: Tuesday, July 21, Pau - Luchon, 196.5 km.

• Rudolfo Massi: 5hr 49min 40sec
• Marco Pantani @ 36sec
• Michael Boogerd @ 59sec
• Giuseppe Di Grande s.t.
• Jose-Maria Jimenez s.t.
• Fernando Escartin s.t.
• Jean-Cyril Robin s.t.
• Leonardo Piepoli s.t.

GC after Stage 10:

• Jan Ullrich: 47hr 25min 18sec
• Bo Hamburger @ 2min 17sec
• Laurent Jalabert @ 2min 38sec
• Luc Leblanc @ 3min 3sec
• Abraham Olano @ 3min 11sec
• Michael Boogerd @ 3min 36sec
• Evgeni Berzin @ 3min 39sec
• Stephane Heulot @ 3min 40sec
• Bjarne Riis @ 3min 51sec
• Marco Pantani @ 4min 41sec

Stage 11: Wednesday, July 22, Luchon - Plateau de Beille, 170 km.

• Marco Pantani: 5hr 15min 27sec
• Roland Meier @ 1min 26sec
• Bobby Julich @ 1min 33sec
• Michael Boogerd s.t.
• Christophe Rinero s.t.
• Jan Ullrich @ 1min 40sec
• Kevin Livingston @ 2min 1sec
• Angel Casero @ 2min 3sec

GC after Stage 11:

• Jan Ullrich: 52hr 42min 25sec
• Bobby Julich @ 1min 11sec
• Laurent Jalabert @ 3min 1sec
• Marco Pantani s.t.
• Michael Boogerd @ 3min 29sec
• Luc Leblanc @ 4min 16sec
• Bo Hamburger @ 4min 44sec
• Fernando Escartin @ 5min 16sec
• Roland Meier @ 5min 18sec
• Angel Casero @ 5min 53sec

Stage 12: Friday, July 24, Tarascon sur Ariège - Le Cap d'Agde, 222 km.

• Tom Steels: 4hr 12min 51sec
• Stephane Barthe s.t.
• Andrea Ferrigato s.t.
• Aert Vierhouten s.t.
• Leonardo Guidi s.t.

GC after Stage 12:

• Jan Ullrich: 56hr 55min 16sec

Stage 13: Saturday, July 25, Frontignan la Peyrade - Carpentras, 196 km.

• Daniele Nardello: 4hr 32min 46sec
• Stephane Heulot s.t.
• Marty Jamison s.t.
• Koos Moerenhout s.t.
• Serguei Ivanov @ 2min 27sec
• Fabio Roscioli @ 2min 43sec
• François Simon
• Maarten Den Bakker s.t.

GC after Stage 13:

• Jan Ullrich: 61hr 30min 53sec
• Stephane Heulot @ 5min 5sec

Stage 14: Sunday, July 26, Valréas - Grenoble, 186.5 km.

• Stuart O'Grady: 4hr 30min 53sec
• Orlando Rodriguez s.t.
• Leon Van Bon s.t.
• Peter Meinert s.t.
• Giuseppe Calcaterra s.t. (Crossed the line 2nd, but relegated for not holding his line in the sprint.
• Frederic Guesdon @ 8min 27sec
• Rafael Diaz Justo s.t.
• Erik Zabel @ 10min 5sec

GC after Stage 14:

• Jan Ullrich: 66hr 11min 51sec

Stage 15: Monday, July 27, Grenoble - Les Deux Alpes, 189 km.

• Marco Pantani: 5hr 43min 45sec
• Rudolfo Massi @ 1min 54sec
• Fernando Escartin @ 1min 59sec
• Christophe Rinero @ 2min 57sec
• Bobby Julich @ 5min 43sec
• Michael Boogerd @ 5min 48sec
• Marcos Serrano @ 6min 4sec
• Jean-Cyril Robin @ 6min 34sec
• Manuel Beltran @ 6min 40sec
• Dariusz Baranowski s.t.

25. Jan Ullrich @ 8min 57sec

GC after Stage 15:

• Marco Pantani: 71hr 58min 37sec
• Bobby Julich @ 3min 53sec
• Fernando Escartin @ 4min 14sec
• Jan Ullrich @ 5min 56sec
• Christophe Rinero @ 6min 12sec
• Michael Boogerd @ 6min 16sec
• Rodolfo Massi @ 7min 53sec
• Luc Leblanc @ 8min 1sec
• Roland Meier @ 8min 57sec
• Daniele Nardello @ 9min 14sec

Stage 16: Tuesday, July 28, Vizille - Albertville, 204 km.

• Jan Ullrich: 5hr 39min 47sec
• Bobby Julich @ 1min 49sec
• Axel Merckx s.t.
• Bjarne Riis s.t.

GC after Stage 16:

• Marco Pantani: 77hr 38min 24sec
• Bobby Julich @ 5min 42sec
• Fernando Escartin @ 6min 3sec
• Christophe Rinero @ 8min 1sec
• Michael Boogerd @ 8min 5sec
• Rodolfo Massi @ 12min 15sec
• Jean-Cyril Robin @ 12min 34sec
• Leonardo Piepoli @ 12min 45sec
• Roland Meier @ 13min 19sec

Stage 17: Wednesday, July 29, Aix-les Bains - Vasseur, 149 km.

After a riders' strike in which they completed the course slowly, without their backnumbers, the stage was annulled. Teams ONCE, Riso Scotti and Banesto abandoned the race.

Stage 18: Thursday, July 30, Aix les Bains - Neuchatel (Switzerland), 218.5 km.

• Tom Steels: 4hr 53min 27sec
• Jacky Durand s.t.
• Nicolas Jalabert s.t.
• Aert Vierhouoten s.t.
• Viatcheslav Djavanian s.t.

GC after Stage 18:

• Marco Pantani: 82hr 31min 51sec
• Daniele Nardello @ 13min 36sec
• Bjarne Riis @ 14min 45sec
• Giuseppe Di Grande @ 15min 13sec

Stage 19: Friday, July 31, La Chaux de Fonds (Switzerland) - Autun, 242 km.

Team TVM abandoned.

• Magnus Backstedt: 5hr 10min 14sec
• Maarten De Bakker s.t.
• Pascal Derame s.t.
• Frederic Guesdon @ 25sec
• Thierry Gouvenou s.t.

GC after Stage 19:

• Marco Pantani: 87hr 58min 43sec

Stage 20: Saturday, August 1, Montceau les Mines - Le Creusot 52 km individual time trial.

• Jan Ullrich: 1hr 3min 52sec
• Bobby Julich @ 1min 1sec
• Marco Pantani @ 2min 35sec
• Dariusz Baranowski @ 3min 11sec
• Andrei Teteriouk @ 3min 46sec
• Viatcheslav Ekimov @ 3min 48sec
• Christophe Rinero @ 3min 50sec
• Riccardo Forconi @ 3min 55sec
• Axel Merckx @ 3min 59sec
• Roland Meier @ 4min 29sec

GC after Stage 20:

• Marco Pantani: 89hr 5min 10sec
• Bobby Julich @ 4min 8sec
• Christophe Rinero @ 9min 16sec
• Michael Boogerd @ 11min 26sec
• Jean-Cyril Robin @ 14min 57sec
• Roland Meier @ 15min 13sec
• Danielo Nardello @ 16min 7sec
• Giuseppe Di Grande @ 15min 35sec
• Axel Merckx @ 17min 39sec

21st and Final Stage: Sunday, August 2, Melun - Paris (Champs Elysées), 147.5 km.

• Tom Steels: 3hr 44min 36sec
• Stefano Zanini s.t.
• Mario Taversoni s.t.
• Damien Nazon s.t.

Complete Final 1998 Tour de France General Classification.

The Story of the 1998 Tour de France:

These excerpts are from "The Story of the Tour de France", Volume 2. If you enjoy them we hope you will consider purchasing the book, either print, eBook or audiobook. The Amazon link here will make the purchase easy.

Always looking to make the Tour interesting as well as profitable for its owners, the 1998 edition started in Dublin, Ireland. The prologue and the first 2 stages were to be held on the Emerald Isle. Then, without a rest day, the riders were to be transferred to Roscoff on the northern coast of Brittany. Then the Tour headed inland for a couple of stages before turning directly south for the Pyrenees, then the Alps and then Paris. This wasn't a race loaded with hilltop finishes but it did have 115.6 kilometers of individual time trial including 52 in the penultimate stage. This should have been a piece of cake for Ullrich. He not only won the Tour de France in 1997, he won the HEW Cyclassics and the Championship of Zurich.

Ullrich was a well-rounded rider who could do anything and who truly deserved his Number 2 world ranking. But the demands of his fame were more than he could handle. His autobiography Ganz oder Ganz Nicht (All or Nothing at All) is disarmingly frank and honest about his troubles. After the 1997 Tour he signed contracts for endorsements that gave him staggering sums of money. He would never have to worry about a paycheck again. Over the winter his weight had ballooned and his form was suspect. In his words, he had begun 1998 with a new personal best, he weighed more than he had ever weighed in his entire life. In the post-Tour celebrations, he let himself go. He said that after winning the Tour, training was the furthest thing from his mind. He then fell into a vicious cycle. He couldn't find good form and good health. He would lie in bed frustrated, and shovel down chocolate. He would then go out and train too hard for his lapsed form and then get sick again.

He rationalized things. "I can't just train all year long. My life consists of more than cycling," he told himself. Meanwhile, his trainer Peter Becker ground his teeth in frustration seeing his prodigiously talented client riding fewer than 50 kilometers a day.

The results of his winter excess were obvious. He attained no notable successes in the spring, but in the new era of Tour specialization this wasn't necessarily a sign that things were going wrong. Yet in Ullrich's case there were few signs that things were going right. In March he pulled out of the Tirreno–Adriatico only 30 kilometers into the first stage.

Ullrich had a new foe in the 1998 Tour. Marco Pantani had been a Charly Gaul-type racer who would detonate on a climb and bring himself to a high placing in a single stage. In May he proved that he could do more than just climb when he won the Giro d'Italia. The signal that Pantani was riding on a new level was the penultimate stage, a 34-kilometer time trial. He lost only 30 seconds to one of the masters of the discipline, Sergey Gonchar. As we noted in 1997, Pantani had suffered a horrific racing accident in 1995 that shattered his femur. He became determined to return to his former high level and through assiduous training he exceeded his former level. There was a telling flag that wasn't made known until later. Technologists checking Pantani's blood after the accident in Turin found that his hematocrit was over 60 percent.

Hematocrit is the measurement of the percentage of blood volume that is occupied by red blood cells, the tools the body uses to feed oxygen to the muscles. Normal men of European descent have a hematocrit in the low to mid 40s. It declines slightly as a response to the effects of training. It would not be expected to increase during a stage race, as some racers have asserted. Exceptional people may exceed that by a significant amount. Damiano Cunego, winner of the 2004 Giro, through a fortunate twist of genetic fate has a natural hematocrit of about 53. To improve sports performances endurance athletes took to using synthetic EPO or erythropoietin, a drug that raises the user's hematocrit. This is not without danger because as the hematocrit rises, so does the blood's viscosity. By the late 1990s athletes were dying in their sleep as their lower sleeping heart rates couldn't shove the red sludge through their blood vessels. Until 2004 there was no way to test for EPO so the only thing limiting how much EPO an athlete would use was his willingness to tempt death. A friend of mine traveled with a famous Spanish professional racing team in the 1990s and was horrified to see the riders sleeping with heart monitors hooked up to alarms. If the athlete's sleeping heart rate should fall below a certain number, he was awakened, given a saline injection, and put on a trainer. In January of 1997 the UCI implemented the 50% rule. If a rider were found to have a hematocrit exceeding 50% he would be suspended for 2 weeks. Since there was no test at the time to determine if a rider had synthetic EPO in his system, the 2-week suspension wasn't considered a positive for dope, only a suspension so that the rider could "regain his health". There were ways for cagey riders to get around the 50% limit, but that story is for 1999.

So let's get one thing straight and understood. Doping was and is part of the sport. As we proceed through the sordid story of 1998, the actions of the riders to protect themselves and their doping speak for themselves. Without a positive test no single rider may be accused but as a group they are guilty. As individuals, unless proven otherwise, the riders are all innocent. As Miguel Indurain asked after he was accused of doping long after he had retired, "How do I prove my innocence?" He's right. It's almost impossible to prove a negative, that is, that a rider didn't do something.

Yet, complicating matters is that a rational, knowledgeable person knows that just because a rider has never tested positive for dope doesn't mean that he has been riding clean. Many riders who never failed a drug test have later been found to be cheaters, as in the case of World Time Trial Champion David Millar. But again, we must be fair. In the absence of a positive test in which the chain of custody of the samples is guaranteed and a fair appeals process is in place to protect the rider's interests, I grit my teeth and consider a rider innocent.

The prologue for the 1998 Tour was on July 11 but the story of the Tour starts in March when a car belonging to the Dutch team TVM was found to have a large cache of drugs. Fast forward to July 8. Team Festina soigneur Willy Voet was searched at a customs stop as he was on his way from Belgium to Calais and then on to the Tour's start in Dublin. What the customs people found in his car set the cycling world on fire. Among the items Voet was transporting were 234 doses of EPO, testosterone, amphetamines and other drugs that could only have one purpose, to improve the performance of the riders on the Festina team. For now we'll leave Voet in the hands of the police who took him to Lille for further searching and questioning.

In Dublin Chris Boardman won the 5.6-kilometer prologue with a scorching speed of 54.2 kilometers an hour. Ullrich momentarily silenced his critics when he came in sixth, only 5 seconds slower. Tour Boss Jean-Marie Leblanc said that the Voet problem didn't concern him or the Tour and that the authorities would sort things out. Bruno Roussel, the director of the Festina team expressed surprise over Voet's arrest.

The first stage was run under wet and windy conditions with Tom Steels, who had been tossed from the previous year's Tour for throwing a water bottle at another rider, winning the sprint. But the cold rain didn't cool down the Festina scandal. Police raided the team warehouse and found more drugs, including bottles labeled with specific rider's names. Roussel expressed yet more mystification at the events and said he would hire a lawyer to deal with all of the defamatory things that had been written about the team. The next day Erik Zabel was able to win the Yellow Jersey by accruing intermediate sprint time bonifications.

When the Tour returned to France on July 14 the minor news was that Casino rider Bo Hamburger was the new Tour leader. The big news was that Voet had started to really talk to the police and told them that he was acting on instructions from Festina team management. Roussel said he was "shocked". The next day things got still worse for Festina. Roussel and team doctor Eric Rijckaert were taken by the police for questioning. Leblanc continued to insist that the Tour was not involved with the messy Festina doings and if no offenses had occurred during the Tour, there would be no action taken to expel Festina.

While the race continued on its way to the Pyrenees with Stuart O'Grady now the leader, the first Australian in Yellow since Phil Anderson and the second ever, the Festina affair continued to draw all of the attention. The world governing body of cycling, the U.C.I., suspended Roussel. Both the Andorra-based Festina watch company and Leblanc continued to voice support for the team's continued presence in the race.

Stage 6, on July 15, turned the entire cycling world upside-down. Roussel admitted that the Festina team had systematized its doping. The excuse was that since the riders were doping themselves, often with terribly dangerous substances like perfluorocarbon (synthetic hemoglobin), it was safer to have the doping performed under the supervision of the team's staff. Leblanc reacted by expelling the team from the Tour. Then several Festina riders including Richard Virenque and Laurent Dufaux called a news conference, asserted their innocence and vowed to continue riding in the Tour.

There was still a race going on amid all of the Festina doings and the first real sorting came with the 58-kilometer time trial of stage 7. Ullrich again showed that against the clock he is an astounding rider. American Tyler Hamilton came in second and was only able to come within 1 minute, 10 seconds of the speedy German. Another American rider, Bobby Julich of the Cofidis team turned in a surprising third place, only 8 seconds slower than Hamilton. So now the General Classification with 2 more stages to go before the mountains:

• Jan Ullrich
• Bo Hamburger @ 1 minute 18 seconds
• Bobby Julich @ same time
• Laurent Jalabert @ 1 minute 24 seconds
• Tyler Hamilton @ 1 minute 30 seconds

Virenque announced that the Festina riders would not try to ride the Tour after their expulsion. That took Alex Zülle, World Champion Laurent Brochard, Laurent Dufaux and Christophe Moreau, among others, out of the action. The reaction from the Tour management, the team doctors and the fans was indicative of the blinders all parties were wearing. The Tour subjected 55 riders to blood tests and found no one with banned substances in his system. The Tour then declared that this meant that the doping was confined to a few bad apples. What it really meant was that for decades the riders and their doctors had learned how to dope so the drugs didn't show up in the tests. And, in 1998 there was no test for EPO. The team doctors protested that the Festina affair was bringing disrepute upon the other teams and their profession. The fans hated to see their beloved riders singled out and thought that Festina was getting unfair treatment. Officials, reflecting upon the easy ride TVM had received in March when their drug-laden car was found, reopened that case.

Stage 10, the long anticipated showdown between Ullrich and Pantani, had finally arrived. It was a Pyrenean stage, going from Pau to Luchon with the Aubisque, the Tourmalet, the Aspin and the Peyresourde. With no new developments in the drug scandals, the attention could finally be focused on the sport of bicycle racing. It was cold and wet in the mountains, which saps the energy of the riders as much as or more than a hot day. It was on the Peyresourde that the action finally started. Casino rider Rudolfo Massi was already off the front. Ullrich got itchy feet and attacked the dozen or so riders still with him. Pantani responded with his own attack and was gone. Pantani closed to within 36 seconds of Massi after extending his lead on the descent of the Peyresourde. Ullrich and 9 others including Julich came in a half-minute after Pantani. After losing the lead in stage 8 when a break of non-contenders was allowed to go, Ullrich was back in Yellow. Pantani was sitting in eleventh place, 4 minutes, 41 second back.

Stage 11, July 22, had 5 climbs rated second category or better with a hilltop finish at Plateau de Beille, an hors category climb new to the Tour. As usual, the best riders held their fire until the final climb. Ullrich flatted just before the road began to bite but was able to rejoin the leaders before things broke up. And break up they did when Pantani took off and no one could hold his wheel. Ullrich was left to chase with little help as he worked to limit his loss. At the top Pantani was first with the Ullrich group a minute and a half back. While Pantani said he was too tired from the Giro to consider winning the Tour, he was slowly closing the gap.

After the Pyrenees and with a rest day next, the General Classification stood thus:

• Bobby Julich @ 1 minute 11 seconds
• Laurent Jalabert @ 3 minutes 1 second
• Marco Pantani @ same time

Festina director Roussel, still in custody, issued a public statement accepting responsibility for the systematic doping within the team.

On July 24, the day of stage 12, the heat in the doping scandal was raised a bit more, if that were possible. Three more Festina team officials including the 2 assistant directors were arrested. A Belgian judge performing a parallel investigation found computer records of the Festina doping program on Erik Rijckaert's computer. Rijckaert said that the Festina riders all contributed to a fund to purchase drugs for the team. Six Festina riders were rounded up and questioned by the Lyon police: Zülle, Dufaux, Brochard, Virenque, Pascal Herve and Didier Rous. The scandal grew larger. TVM manager Cees Priem, the TVM team doctor and mechanic were arrested. A French TV reporter said that he had found dope paraphernalia in the hotel room of the Asics team.

So how did the riders handle this growing stink? Much as they did when they were caught up in the Wiel's affair in 1962. They became indignant. They were furious that the Festina riders had been forced to strip in the French jail and fuming that so much attention was focused on the ever-widening doping scandal instead of the race. In 1962 Jean Bobet talked the riders out of making themselves ridiculous by striking over being caught red-handed. There was no such voice of sanity in 1998. The riders initiated a slow-down, refusing to race for the first 16 kilometers.

On July 25 several Festina riders confessed to using EPO, including Armin Meier, Laurent Brochard and Christophe Moreau. The extent of the concern over the drug scandal was made clear when the French newspaper Le Monde editorialized that the 1998 Tour should be cancelled. It's important to note that what should have been outrage from the riders of the peloton, when confronted with the undeniable fact that they were racing against cheaters, was never voiced. Instead, the peloton defended the cheaters. When pro racers start screaming that they were robbed by the dopers then we may start to think that there has been some reform in the peloton. Until then, the pack is guilty.

As the Tour moved haltingly towards the Alps the top echelons of the General Classification remained unchanged. Alex Zülle issued a statement of regret admitting his use of EPO, saying what any rational observer should have assumed, that Festina was not the only team doping.

On Monday, July 27 the Tour reached the hard alpine stages. Stage 15 started in Grenoble and went over the Croix de Fer, the Télégraphe, and the Galibier to a hilltop finish at Les Deux Alpes. It was generally surmised that if Ullrich could stay with Pantani until the final climb he would be safe because the climb to Les Deux Alpes averages 6.2% with an early section of a little over 10% gradient. Ullrich's big-gear momentum style of climbing would be well suited to this climb.

Pantani didn't wait for the last climb. On the Galibier he exploded and quickly disappeared up the mountain. At the top he had 2½ minutes on Ullrich. On the descent Pantani used his superb descending skills to increase his lead on the now isolated Ullrich. By the start of the final ascent Pantani had a lead of more than 4 minutes. On the climb to Les Deux Alpes Ullrich's lack of deep, hard conditioning made itself manifest. He was in trouble and needed teammates Riis and Udo Bolts to pace him up the mountain. At the top of the mountain the catastrophe (as far as Telekom was concerned) was complete. Pantani was in Yellow, having taken almost 9 minutes out of the German who came in twenty-fifth that day. The new General Classification shows how dire Ullrich's position was:

• Marco Pantani
• Bobby Julich @ 3 minutes 53 seconds
• Fernando Escartin @ 4 minutes 14 seconds
• Jan Ullrich @ 5 minutes 56 seconds

Stage 16 was the last day of truly serious climbing with the Porte, Cucheron, Granier, Gran Cucheron and the Madeleine. On the final climb Ullrich showed that he was doing much better than the day before when he attacked and only Pantani could go with him. Since Pantani was the leader and had the luxury of riding defensively, he let Ullrich do all the work. If Ullrich couldn't drop Pantani, he could at least put some distance between himself and Julich and Escartin, which he did. Pantani and Ullrich came in together with Ullrich taking the stage victory in Albertville. Julich and Escartin followed the duo by 1 minute, 49 seconds. Ullrich was back on the General Classification Podium:

• Bobby Julich @ 5 minutes 42 seconds
• Fernando Escartin @ 6 minutes 3 seconds

On Wednesday July 29, stage 17, the riders staged a strike. They started by riding very slowly and at the site of the first intermediate sprint they sat down. After talking with race officials they took off their numbers and rode slowly to the finish in Aix-les-Bains with several TVM riders in the front holding hands to show the solidarity of the peloton. If the reader thinks that the other members of the peloton did not know that the TVM team was doping I have ocean-front land in Arkansas for him to buy. Along the way the Banesto, ONCE and Risso Scotti teams abandoned the Tour. The Tour organization voided the stage allowing those riders who were members of teams that had not officially abandoned to start on Thursday.

Why all this anger now? First of all, the day before drugs were said to be found in a truck belonging to the Big Mat Auber 93 team. The next day this turned out to be untrue. Then the entire TVM squad was taken into custody and the team's cars and trucks were seized. They, like the Festina team, were handled roughly by the police, sparking outrage from the riders not yet in jail.

Thursday, July 30, stage 18: Kelme and Vitalicio Seguros quit the Tour. That made all 4 Spanish teams out. Rudolfo Massi, winner of stage 10 was taken into custody. At the start of the stage there were now only 103 riders left in the peloton, down from 189 starters.

Friday, July 31, stage 19. TVM abandoned the Tour. It turned out that ONCE's team doctor Nicolas Terrados was also put under arrest after a police search found drugs on their bus that later turned out to be legal.

So now it was Ullrich's last chance to take the Tour with the stage 20 52-kilometer individual time trial. Pantani was too good, losing only 2 minutes and 35 seconds to Ullrich. That sealed the Tour for Pantani. Ullrich acknowledged that he had not taken his preparation for the Tour seriously and paid a very high price for his lack of discipline. Sounding a note that will become a metaphor for the balance of his career, he promised to work harder in the future and not repeat his mistakes.

Of 189 starters in this Tour, 96 finished.

Final 1998 Tour de France General Classification:

• Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno): 92 hours 49 minutes 46 seconds
• Jan Ullrich (Telekom) @ 3 minutes 21 seconds
• Bobby Julich (Cofidis) @ 4 minutes 8 seconds
• Christophe Rinero (Cofidis) @ 9 minutes 16 seconds
• Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) @ 11 minutes 26 seconds

Climbers' competition:

• Christophe Rinero: 200 points
• Marco Pantani: 175 points
• Alberto Elli: 165 points

Points competition:

• Erik Zabel: 327 points
• Stuart O'Grady: 230 points
• Tom Steels: 221 points  

Pantani became the first Italian to win the Tour since Felice Gimondi in 1965. He became the seventh man to do the Giro-Tour double, joining Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Roche and Indurain.

The drug busts of 1998 did little to alter rider and team behavior. There would be more drug raids and more outraged screams from the riders. But the police knew what they were dealing with. The riders had formed a conspiracy to cheat and to break the law. Their code of silence was nothing more than a culture of intimidation to allow the riders to do what they had done for more than 100 years, take drugs to relieve their pain, allow them to sleep and improve their performance. Their anger at the treatment they received from the police is indicative of their sense of entitlement, their feeling that this was something that they could and sometimes had to do. On the other hand cops like to catch bad guys and when they do, they aren't always gentle.

Now, there is one other question that needs to be asked. Voet, who had chosen a lightly-traveled road on his way to Calais, was expecting the customs station at the French frontier to be abandoned. It wasn't and he was stopped and searched by border agents who seemed to be waiting for him. Roussel believes that when Tour Boss Jean-Marie Leblanc, who is conservative politically, talked Roussel into letting Bernadette Chirac, wife of conservative French President Jacques Chirac, do a bit of self-promotion when she visited the Tour for stage 7, the Tour became a target in the war between France's Right and the Left. The left-center coalition government had given the Ministry for Sports and Youth to the left-leaning Marie-George Buffet. Roussel hypothesized that Festina, Leblanc and the Tour were sacrificed to give Buffet a victory against the Right and incidentally, against doping. Certainly it was clear after the 1998 Tour that systematized doping was part of the professional cycling scene and had been that way for some time. Roussel asks why did this festering problem erupt into scandal at this point? A deeper exploration of the subject is beyond the intended scope of this book.

If the reader is interested I recommend Les Woodland's The Crooked Path to Victory where the complex subject of sport, politics, dope and the 1998 Tour is brilliantly dissected.

© McGann Publishing

1998 Tour de France: results and classification

General classification of the 1998 tour de france, jerseys of the 1998 tour de france, stages of the 1998 tour de france.

Prologue (Dublin - Dublin, 5.6 km)

Stage 1 (Dublin - Dublin, 180.5 km)

Stage 2 (Enniscorthy - Cork, 205.5 km)

Stage 3 (Roscoff - Lorient, 169 km)

Stage 4 (Plouay - Cholet, 252 km)

Stage 5 (Cholet - Chateauroux, 228.5 km)

Stage 6 (La Châtre - Brive la Gaillarde, 204.5 km)

Stage 7 (Meyrignac - Corrèze, 58 km in Individual Time Trial)

Stage 8 (Brive la Gaillarde - Montauban, 190.5 km)

Stage 9 (Montauban - Pau, 210 km)

Stage 10 (Pau - Bagnères-de-Luchon, 196.5 km)

Stage 11 (Bagnères-de-Luchon - Plateau de Beille, 170 km)

Stage 12 (Tarascon sur Ariège - Le Cap d'Agde, 222 km)

Stage 13 (Frontignan la Peyrade - Carpentras, 196 km)

Stage 14 (Valréas - Grenoble, 186.5 km)

Stage 15 (Grenoble - Les Deux Alpes, 189 km)

Stage 16 (Vizille - Albertville, 204 km)

Stage 17 (Albertville - Aix-les-Bains, 149 km)

Stage 18 (Aix-les-Bains - Neuchatel, 218.5 km)

Stage 19 (La Chaux de Fonds - Autun, 242 km)

Stage 20 (Montceau les Mines - Le Creusot, 52 km in Individual Time Trial)

Stage 21 (Melun - Paris/Champs Élysées, 147.5 km)

• Championship and cup winners
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Geschiedenis tour de france vanaf 1903, uitslag tour de france 1998.

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De Tour de France van 1998 met start op 11 Juli 1998 in Dublin en finish op 2 Augustus 1998 werd na 3875 kilometers in 21 etappes gewonnen door Marco Pantani. Lees voor alle uitslagen van de Tour de France van 1998 hier verder. Of bekijk hier alle Tour de France etappes vanaf 1903 .

Doe mee aan het Zweeler Tourspel, met wel €31.000 aan geldprijzen !

 Deze etappe was een Italië over Dublin kilometer. 3875 kwam uit 189 en de geletruidrager kwam uit Marco Pantani.

Hou je van Tourpoules  of  Tourspellen ? Daar vind je alles over op  Tourpools.nl .

Aanvullende informatie

• Jaartal Tour de France: 1998
• Startplaats Tour de France: Dublin
• Startdatum: start op 11 Juli 1998
• Einddatum: finish op 2 Augustus 1998
• Lengte Tour de France in KM: 3875
• Aantal etappes: 21
• Gemiddelde snelheid: 39.983
• Deelnemers: 189
• Gefinished: 96
• Uitvallers: 93
• % Uitvallers: 49% uitvallers
• Volledige naam winnaar: Marco Pantani
• Achternaam winnaar: Pantani
• Leeftijd winnaar: 28
• Afkomst winnaar: Italië
• Team van de winnaar: Mercatone
• Volledige naam 2e Plaats: Jan Ullrich
• Achternaam 2e plaats: Ullrich
• Achterstand 2e plaats: 3 min 21 sec
• Volledige naam 3e plaats: Bobby Julich
• Achternaam 3e plaats: Julich
• Achterstand 3e plaats: 4 min 8 sec
• Volledige naam winnaar Punten: Erik Zabel
• Achternaam groene trui: Zabel
• Land winnaar groene trui: Duitsland
• Volledige naam winnaar Bergklassement: Christophe Rinero
• Achternaam bolletjestrui: Rinero
• Land winnaar bolletjestrui: Frankrijk
• Ploegenklassement (of land): Cofidis

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The 1998 Tour de France 25 Years Later… A “Last Rider” Review… And the Arc of Cycling History

Forgive me if I am being a bit nostalgic — maybe it’s just my age. Or maybe it’s what I do best now. Probably it has something to do with a slew of cycling media, actual and rumored, taking us back in time to the… if not good old days, certainly some very charismatic ones. Those late-20th Century days.

I launched myself back into the Jan Ullrich story last month, which is my own choosing/fault, although in part because we have been promised a new documentary which will finally clear up his mysterious story, though of course that seems to have disappeared once again. Oh, and over the past weekend my wife and I went to see The Last Rider , a spectacular replay of the 1989 Tour de France and the … well, more on that in a minute. I did feel some pangs of annoyance coming out of there and into this year’s Tour, which started in the Basque Country and briefly included an appearance by Miguel Indurain, whose exploits are still celebrated as if there was nothing going on behind the scenes in cycling until after he left.

But mostly I feel prompted by anniversaries, and 25 years ago we watched one of the craziest Tours de France ever, loaded with the very best and absolute worst kind of (non-crash-related) drama imaginable. It was a charisma clash of the titans, and to this day the spectre of doping only partially peels back the emotion this race generated in Italy (and maybe parts of Germany too). The role of doping, however, dominated the events day-to-day, as the world was forced to really look at the influence of performance-enhancing substances for the first time, and the riders had to face the resulting backlash from within and without, for the first time as well.

Three things happened coming into the 1998 Tour de France that shook the sport in a major way. One was the rapid rise of Jan Ullrich, who had graduated a year earlier from super-talented understudy to Bjarne Riis to dominant maillot jaune, poised to rewrite the record books. The next major event was the crystalizing of Marco Pantani’s career as a grand tour rider. Prior to 1998, he had two third place finishes at the Tour (including the previous edition) and was runner-up in the 1994 Giro d’Italia, but then suffered a pair of training accidents, the second one which wiped out almost all of his 1996 season and threatened to derail his promising career entirely. His rebound at the ‘97 Tour reawakened the excitement, which then went through the roof as he won the 1998…

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• 1998 Tour de France

1998 Tour de France explained

The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of the Tour de France , one of cycling's Grand Tours . The 3875km (2,408miles) race was composed of 21 stages and a prologue. It started on 11 July in Ireland before taking an anti-clockwise route through France to finish in Paris on 2 August. Marco Pantani of won the overall general classification , with 's Jan Ullrich , the defending champion, and rider Bobby Julich finishing on the podium in second and third respectively.

The general classification leader's yellow jersey was first awarded to Chris Boardman 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 took the race lead. He lost it the next stage to 's Bo Hamburger , 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 , who took vital seconds from time bonuses gained in intermediate sprints. 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 and Julich's teammate Christophe Rinero , fourth overall, was the winner of the mountains classification . Ullrich was the best young rider and the most combative was 's Jacky Durand . The team classification was won by . Tom Steels of won the most stages, with four.

The race was marred throughout by a doping scandal , known as the Festina affair . Before the Tour began, Willy Voet , 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.

See main article: List of teams and cyclists in the 1998 Tour de France .

The organisers of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (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. [1] The first round of squads that were invited were the first sixteen teams in the ranking system of the Union Cycliste Internationale (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. [2] All these sixteen teams fulfilled this requirement. [3] On 19 June, the ASO gave wildcard invitations to,, and, with receiving a special invitation. [4] 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 in Ireland on the evening before the prologue stage , which began at the college.

Each squad was allowed a maximum of nine riders, resulting in a start list total of 189 riders. [5] Of these, 51 were riding the Tour de France for the first time. [6] The riders came from 22 countries, with the majority of them coming from France, Italy and Spain. Jörg Jaksche was the youngest rider at 21 years and 353 days on the day of the prologue, and the oldest was Massimo Podenzana at 36 years and 347 days. [7] The cyclists had the youngest average age while the riders on had the oldest. [8]

The teams entering the race were:

Qualified teams

Invited teams

Pre-race favourites

Jan Ullrich was the defending champion. He had won the 1997 edition 's overall general classification by over nine minutes. His Telekom team was considered as "clearly the squad to beat", having won the previous two editions with Bjarne Riis 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, [9] and his weight had increased from 73kg (161lb) to 87kg (192lb). In March 1998, El País headlined an article with "Ullrich is fat", which highlighted that he was still 8kg (18lb) over the weight he had during the previous Tour. [10] His preparation suffered further when he was forced to retire from Tirreno–Adriatico with a cold. However, Ullrich performed well in both the Tour de Suisse and the Route du Sud directly before the start of the Tour, erasing doubts over his form. [11] 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." [12] 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. [13] Their leading rider, Richard Virenque , had finished second to Ullrich the year before. The two long individual time trial 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 in the four previous Tours. The team was further strengthened by the arrival of Alex Zülle in the 1998 season, winner of the two previous editions of the three-week Grand Tour of Spain, the Vuelta a España , 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 , [14] 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. [15] Another possible contender from Festina was Laurent Dufaux , who had finished fourth overall in 1996 and ninth in 1997.

Marco Pantani 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 race in Bologna . 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 , unlike Ullrich and Virenque.

A returning pre-race favourite from the 1997 Tour was time trialist Abraham Olano ; in that race, he won the final time trial stage and placed fourth overall. He led the experienced team, who took Miguel Induráin to his five straight Tour wins between 1991 and 1995 , 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 , he performed poorly in the high mountains, and as a result was only seen as a podium contender. Banesto also fielded José María Jiménez , 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 , a complete all-rounder 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 , riders Francesco Casagrande and Bobby Julich , Evgeni Berzin , Fernando Escartín , and Chris Boardman .

Route and stages

See main article: 1998 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 11 and 1998 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21 .

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. [16] [17] 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. [18] The opening stages (known as the Grand Départ ) in Ireland were confirmed in early April 1997. [19] Irish officials expected the race to bring in IR£30 million to the local economy. [20] 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 for Shay Elliott , the first Irish rider to ride the Tour and win a stage, [21] and during stage 2 of the race, the route went through Carrick-on-Suir , the hometown of Sean Kelly , four-time winner of the Tour's points classification . [22] Stage 2 also commemorated the 200th anniversary of French troops landing at Killala Bay during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 .

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 , also held in France, which ended on 12 July, one day after the prologue. The 3875km (2,408miles)-race lasted 23 days, including the rest day, and ended on 2 August. [23] The longest mass-start stage was the fourth at 252km (157miles), and stage 20 was the shortest at 125km (78miles). The race contained three individual time trials, one of which was the prologue, totalling 115.6km (71.8miles). 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 on stage 11 and another on stage 15 at Les Deux Alpes . The highest point of elevation in the race was 2642m (8,668feet) at the summit of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 15. [24] It was among five hors catégorie (beyond category) rated climbs in the race. [25] [26] [27] [28] Cycling journalist Samuel Abt considered the route easier than the 1997 edition. Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc 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 . Stage 1 was a loop that returned to the city, with the following stage travelling down the Irish eastern coast to Cork . 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 in the north-western region of Brittany , with three stages taking the race to the centre of the country at Châteauroux . Stage 6 moved the Tour into the Massif Central highlands, which hosted the next stage. Two transitional stages to Pau then placed the race in the foothills of the Pyrenees , where two stages took place. Following the rest day, a three-stage journey crossed the south to three further stages in the Alps . The next stage took the Tour through the Jura Mountains to Switzerland, with the following stage crossing back over the border to Burgundy , 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 s in Reims , France, revealing 104 vials of recombinant erythropoietin (EPO), a drug with performance-enhancing effects. The two mechanics 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 of Festina tested positive for the anabolic steroid mesterolone . [30] 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 , a soigneur (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 , 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. [31]

Early stages in Ireland

Chris Boardman covered the 5.6km (03.5miles) 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. [32]

Tom Steels outsprinted Erik Zabel in stage 1's bunch sprint 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 , a favourite for the stage win, was held up 8km (05miles) from the end when he was involved in a crash with his teammate, Frédéric Moncassin . [33] 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 mountain pass, claiming the Tour's first available mountains classification points and the first polka-dot jersey.

Unlike other general classification favourites, who always rode at the front of the peloton (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 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. [34] rider Ján Svorada was involved in a crash with 15km (09miles) 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 sprints to take the yellow jersey.

Move to France and evolving doping scandal

's Jens Heppner 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 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 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 two seconds down on Hamburger, and Stuart O'Grady 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 (TVM) from an uphill bunch sprint at Cholet 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 .

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 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.

Stage 7, the hilly and technical first long individual time trial, was won by Ullrich, 1:10 minutes ahead of 's Tyler Hamilton , 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 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 in a final sprint, contested between a four-man breakaway. The closing field followed 12 seconds later. Second-place finisher Jens Voigt collected enough mountains classification points from within the breakaway to take the polka-dot jersey. [35] Two-time stage winner Cipollini dropped out during this stage.

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 du Tourmalet , the Col d'Aspin and finally the Col de Peyresourde , followed by 15.5km (09.6miles) of downhill to the finish line. [36] 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 and teammates Rodolfo Massi and Alberto Elli 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 13km (08miles)-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 45km (28miles), when they stopped to pay their respects at the memorial to Fabio Casartelli on the Col de Portet d'Aspet , who crashed and died there during the 1995 Tour. [37] [38] As the field reached the bottom of the 16km (10miles) 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 4km (02miles) from the finish to attack, and after passing the sole breakaway rider, Roland Meier , 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

After the rest day, stage 12 followed a flat course between Tarascon-sur-Ariège and Cap d'Agde . 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 . 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 16km (10miles) ahead, and the race started, exactly two hours after the scheduled time. It was at this point that the stage was officially started. [39] After about 40km (30miles), Jalabert then went on the attack over a short climb with his brother Nicolas and Bart Voskamp (TVM), [40] with the group building up a lead of about five minutes. [39] 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. [40] The stage, shortened by 16km (10miles) to account for the delay caused by the strike, was run at an average speed of 48.764kph, the third-fastest stage in Tour history.

Stage 13 saw a breakaway by six riders, among them Daniele Nardello 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 put in an attack, but was brought back by Riis. The following day's stage brought the Tour to Grenoble at the foot of the Alps. The stage was won by O'Grady, again from a breakaway. [41] 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 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 . By this point, the lead group contained only Massi, Christophe Rinero and Marcos-Antonio Serrano . 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 6km (04miles) 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 hypoglycemia 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 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 , 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 , 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 17km (11miles) 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 , 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 , 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.

Before stage 18 into Neuchâtel in Switzerland, police held Massi, who was still the leader in the mountains classification, for questioning after corticoid s were allegedly found in his room during a search of the Casino team hotel. He was therefore unable to start the stage, [42] 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 coming out on top. [43]

The penultimate stage saw the last individual time trial of the race to Le Creusot . 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. [44] Pantani was greeted on the podium by Felice Gimondi , who had been invited by Jean-Marie Leblanc to present to the crowd the first Italian winner since his own victory in 1965 . [45] Zabel won his third consecutive points classification with a total of 327, 97 ahead of O'Grady in second. [46] 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. [47] 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.

See main article: Doping at the 1998 Tour de France . 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 , 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 level instead, which tested how many red cells were in a rider's blood. During the UCI's meeting in Geneva , Switzerland, on 24 January 1997, the procedure, labelled as a "health test", limiting the allowed hematocrit level to 50 per cent, was introduced. [48] 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 , [49] starting with the arrest of Voet. [50] 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" [51] [52] or "Tour du Dopage" (Tour of Doping). [53] [54] Following Festina's expulsion from the race, the police investigation against the TVM team in March was made public by Le Parisien and the case reopened.

Many riders in the Tour reacted to the developing scandal by hiding or destroying evidence of doping. Rolf Aldag 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 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 s. The Festina riders were placed under custody and brought into individual prison cells, and allegedly subjected to cavity search 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 . 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. [55]

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. [56] Priem and Moors were released on 10 August. [57] The TVM riders were also questioned by the police on 4 August and held for about 12 hours, before they were released. [58] However, no banned substances were found during the raid at TVM's team hotel during the Tour. [59] 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. [60] Police called in twelve riders from BigMat for questioning along with the directeur sportif 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. [61]

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. [62] Virenque confessed during a court hearing concerning the Festina affair, on 24 October 2000. [63] 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". [64]

During the Tour, 108 tests for performance-enhancing drugs were carried out by France's main anti-doping laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry . 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. [65]

In July 2013, the anti-doping committee of the French Senate 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. [66] [67] Julich had already admitted in 2012 that he had used EPO from August 1996 to July 1998. [68]

Classification leadership and minor prizes

There were several classifications in the 1998 Tour de France. The most important was the general classification , 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 , 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 . 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 , 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 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 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 was given in honour of Tour founder Henri Desgrange 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 , who was second in the points classification, wore the green jersey, because first placed Chris Boardman wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification. [69] [70]

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. [74]

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. [75] 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 . The squad then competed in the last Grand Tour of the year, the Vuelta a España , [76] where Alex Zülle failed to defend his title, but won a stage and finished eighth overall. [77]

Following the fallout from the 1998 edition, the 1999 Tour de France 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 3kph. [78] This did not come to pass however, as the average speed rose again [78] and race winner Lance Armstrong was stripped of his title in 2012 following a lengthy investigation into doping practises. [79] ASO barred the TVM team from competing in the 1999 race. [80] 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. [78] 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 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 (WADA) in December 1999.

In the media

See main article: The Racer (film) . 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 , the Irish state development agency. [81] The film has since been renamed The Racer and secured funding from Screen Flanders, the Film Fund Luxembourg, Eurimages , the BAI Sound & Vision Fund, and RTÉ . [82] The film premiered at the 2020 South by Southwest film festival. [83]

• 1998 in sports
• List of doping cases in cycling
• Operación Puerto doping case  – a Spanish Police operation against mainly doping in professional cycling that began in 2006

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Further reading

• Book: Abt. Samuel. Samuel Abt. Startt. James. In Pursuit of the Yellow Jersey: Bicycle Racing in the Year of the Tortured Tour . 1999. Cycle Publishing. San Francisco. 978-1-892495-16-7.

External links

• 1998 Tour de France at Cyclingnews.com

Notes and References

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• Web site: Le Tour de France report – Teams . 16 May 2019. Union Cycliste Internationale . live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190516193702/http://62.50.72.82/english/tdf/teams.htm. 16 May 2019.
• Web site: Tour de France 1998 – Debutants . ProCyclingStats. 12 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190512185712/https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france/1998/gc/startlist/debutants. 12 May 2019. live.
• Web site: Tour de France 1998 – Youngest competitors . ProCyclingStats. 12 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190512185444/https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france/1998/gc/startlist/youngest-competitors. 12 May 2019. live.
• Web site: Tour de France 1998 – Average team age . ProCyclingStats. 12 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190512185502/https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france/1998/gc/startlist/average-team-age. 12 May 2019. live.
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• News: Arribas . Carlos . Ullrich está gordo . Ullrich is fat . 16 April 2019 . . 16 March 1998 . es . https://web.archive.org/web/20190416103955/https://elpais.com/diario/1998/03/16/deportes/890002833_850215.html . 16 April 2019 . live .
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• News: Arribas . Carlos . Ullrich y los demás . Ullrich and the others . 16 April 2019 . . 11 July 1998 . es . https://web.archive.org/web/20190416102451/https://elpais.com/diario/1998/07/11/deportes/900108009_850215.html . 16 April 2019 . live .
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• Web site: Le Tour de France report – Stage 16 . 16 May 2019. Union Cycliste Internationale . live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190516210110/http://62.50.72.82/english/tdf/tdf_98_16.htm. 16 May 2019.
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• Wicklow Welcomes Tour de France . Sunday Sport . 12 July 1998 . 10 June 2019 . . Willoughby . Roy (reporter) . https://web.archive.org/web/20190529042355/https://www.rte.ie/archives/2018/0703/976039-tour-de-france-in-wicklow/ . 29 May 2019 . live .
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• Web site: Stage 21: Melun – Paris-Champs-Élysées (147,5 km): Overall youth . Tour de France . Amaury Sport Organisation . 10 September 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20000307185840/http://www.letour.com/98us/etapes/21/classements/ijg.html. 7 March 2000.
• Web site: Stage 21: Melun – Paris-Champs-Élysées (147,5 km): Overall team . Tour de France . Amaury Sport Organisation . 23 March 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/19991225065357/http://www.letour.com/98us/etapes/21/classements/etg.html. 25 December 1999.
• Web site: Stage 21: Melun – Paris-Champs-Élysées (147,5 km): Overall combativity . Tour de France . Amaury Sport Organisation . 10 September 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/19991225112611/http://www.letour.com/98us/etapes/21/classements/icg.html. 25 December 1999.
• Web site: UCI Road Rankings – 2 August 1998 . 24 March 2019. Union Cycliste Internationale . 3 August 1998. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20000830115625/http://www.uci.ch/english/road/data/men_980802.pdf. 30 August 2000.
• Web site: Second Edition News for August 12, 1998: Drugs Update . . 5 September 2019 . 12 August 1998.
• Web site: Festina to turn the page . . 31 August 2019 . 4 September 1998.
• Web site: Año 1998 . LaVuelta.es . Unipublic . 31 August 2019 . es . https://web.archive.org/web/20170818175441/http://historia.lavuelta.com/es/anio.asp?a=1998 . 18 August 2017 . dead .
• Web site: Quénet . Jean-François . 1999 Tour de France: The farce of renewal . . 2 September 2019 . 27 June 2019.
• News: Macur . Juliet . Lance Armstrong Is Stripped of His 7 Tour de France Titles . 2 September 2019 . . 22 October 2012.
• Web site: News for June 17, 1999 . . 2 September 2019 . 17 June 1999.
• News: Shortall . Eithne . Tour de Dopage film The Domestique passes test for Screen Ireland funding . . 12 June 2019 . 22 July 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180731145447/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tour-de-dopage-film-the-domestique-passes-test-for-screen-ireland-funding-5t9wdq0dd . 31 July 2018 . live .
• News: Clarke . Stewart . First Look at 1998 Tour de France Film 'The Racer' . . 4 November 2019 . 29 July 2019.
• Web site: Irish Tour de France drama The Racer will receive World Premiere at SXSW in March . Fís Éireann . 26 February 2021 . 16 January 2020.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License . It uses material from the Wikipedia article " 1998 Tour de France ".

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Home > Events > Cycling > Tour de France > Winners > List

Tour de France Winners List

The most successful rider in the Tour de France was Lance Armstrong , who finished first seven times before his wins were removed from the record books after being found guilty of doping by the USADA in 2012. No rider has been named to replace him for those years.

> see also more information about how they determine the winners of the Tour

General Classification Winners

* footnotes

• 1904: The original winner was Maurice Garin, however he was found to have caught a train for part of the race and was disqualified.
• 1996: Bjarne Riis has admitted to the use of doping during the 1996 Tour. The Tour de France organizers have stated they no longer consider him to be the winner, although Union Cycliste Internationale has so far refused to change the official status due to the amount of time passed since his win. Jan Ullrich was placed second.
• 1999-2005: these races were originally won by Lance armstrong, but in 2012 his wins in the tour de france were removed due to doping violations.
• 2006: Floyd Landis was the initial winner but subsequently rubbed out due to a failed drug test.
• 2010: Alberto Contador was the initial winner of the 2010 event, but after a prolonged drug investigation he was stripped of his win in 2012.

Related Pages

• Read how they determine the winners of the Tour
• Tour de France home page.
• Anthropometry of the Tour de France Winners

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Hier de lijst met daarin alle winnaars van de Tour de France. In 1903 werd de Tour de France voor het eerst verreden, die werd gewonnen door Maurice Garin uit Frankrijk. De meest recente Tour, die van 2016, werd gewonnen door de Amerikaan Chris Froome.

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July 11-august 2, 1998.

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Sprint | Pr

Sprint | saint-jean-poutge, sprint | maubourguet, finishline points, kom sprint | côte de saint-léonard, kom sprint | côte de loubère, kom sprint | côte de lahitte-toupière, team day classification, race information.

• Date: 20 July 1998
• Start time: -
• Avg. speed winner: 39.232 km/h
• Race category: ME - Men Elite
• Distance: 210 km
• Points scale: GT.A.Stage
• Parcours type:
• ProfileScore: 99
• Vert. meters: 2778
• Departure: Montauban
• Arrival: Pau
• Race ranking: 0
• Startlist quality score: 1692
• Won how: Sprint of small group
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