1998 Tour de France
 Route of the 1998 Tour de France | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dates | 11 July – 2 August | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stages | 21 + Prologue | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Distance | 3,875 km (2,408 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Winning time | 92h 49' 46" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of the Tour de France and took place between 11 July and 2 August. For the first time the tour started in Ireland.[1][2]
The 1998 edition of Tour de France was won by Marco Pantani, with Jan Ullrich, the defending champion, and American Bobby Julich finishing on the podium in second and third respectively. Erik Zabel won his third consecutive green jersey in the points classification. Christophe Rinero claimed the polka dot jersey as the winner of the mountains classification.[3]
Teams
Because the 1997 Tour had seen many crashes in the first week, organisers of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), decided to reduce the number of teams from 22 to 21. 189 riders in 21 teams commenced the 1998 Tour de France, only 96 riders finished.[4] The first round of teams that were invited were the sixteen teams of the UCI Rankings on 1 January 1998, provided that they were still in the top 20 after transfers were factored into the calculation.[5] All these sixteen teams fulfilled this requirement.[6] Later, the ASO gave wildcard invitions to four teams.[7] with one team added by special invitation:[7]
The teams entering the race were:
Qualified teams
Invited teams
Route and stages
| Stage | Date | Course | Distance | Type | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | 11 July | Dublin (Ireland) | 5.6 km (3.5 mi) |  | Individual time trial |  |
| 1 | 12 July | Dublin (Ireland) | 180.5 km (112.2 mi) |  | Plain stage | .svg.png){kind=small} |
| 2 | 13 July | Enniscorthy (Ireland) to Cork (Ireland) | 205.5 km (127.7 mi) | | Plain stage |  |
| 3 | 14 July | Roscoff to Lorient | 169.0 km (105.0 mi) | | Plain stage |  |
| 4 | 15 July | Plouay to Cholet | 252.0 km (156.6 mi) | | Plain stage |  |
| 5 | 16 July | Cholet to Châteauroux | 228.5 km (142.0 mi) | | Plain stage |  |
| 6 | 17 July | La Châtre to Brive-la-Gaillarde | 204.5 km (127.1 mi) | | Plain stage | |
| 7 | 18 July | Meyrignac-l'Église to Corrèze | 58.0 km (36.0 mi) | | Individual time trial | |
| 8 | 19 July | Brive-la-Gaillarde to Montauban | 190.5 km (118.4 mi) | | Plain stage |  |
| 9 | 20 July | Montauban to Pau | 210.0 km (130.5 mi) | | Plain stage | |
| 10 | 21 July | Pau to Luchon | 196.5 km (122.1 mi) |  | Stage with mountain(s) | |
| 11 | 22 July | Luchon to Plateau de Beille | 170.0 km (105.6 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | |
| 23 July | Ariège | Rest day | ||||
| 12 | 24 July | Tarascon-sur-Ariège to Le Cap d'Agde | 222.0 km (137.9 mi) | | Plain stage | |
| 13 | 25 July | Frontignan la Peyrade to Carpentras | 196.0 km (121.8 mi) | | Plain stage | |
| 14 | 26 July | Valréas to Grenoble | 186.5 km (115.9 mi) |  | Hilly stage |  |
| 15 | 27 July | Grenoble to Les Deux Alpes | 189.0 km (117.4 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | |
| 16 | 28 July | Vizille to Albertville | 204.0 km (126.8 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | |
| 17 | 29 July | Albertville to Aix-les-Bains | 149.0 km (92.6 mi) | | Stage with mountain(s) | — |
| 18 | 30 July | Aix-les-Bains to Neuchâtel (Switzerland) | 218.5 km (135.8 mi) | | Hilly stage | |
| 19 | 31 July | La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland) to Autun | 242.0 km (150.4 mi) | | Plain stage |  |
| 20 | 1 August | Montceau-les-Mines to Le Creusot | 52.0 km (32.3 mi) | | Individual time trial | |
| 21 | 2 August | Melun to Paris (Champs-Élysées) | 147.5 km (91.7 mi) | | Plain stage | |
| Total | 3,875 km (2,408 mi)[10] | |||||
Race overview
The Prologue was won by Time Trial specialist Chris Boardman, with Abraham Olano coming in 2nd four seconds behind. Defending champion Jan Ullrich tied for 3rd place and GC contender Alex Zulle finished 7th. Boardman held the Yellow Jersey for a stage before it changed hands to Erik Zabel after Stage 2, Bo Hamburger after Stage 3 and then Stuart O’Grady after Stage 4 who would hold the overall lead going into the Individual Time Trial in Stage 7.
Before the start of Stage 7 the entire Festina team, including Richard Virenque and Laurent Dufaux, were expelled from the Tour because of a major doping scandal that was developing.
The ITT was won by Ullrich who gained enough time to claim the overall lead and the Maillot Jaune. American Tyler Hamilton came in 2nd and moved into 5th place overall. Stage 8 was a flat stage which saw more than a half dozen riders escape early in the day. None of them were a threat to the GC riders so by the time Jacky Durand crossed the finish line as the days winner the group of escapees had built a gap of nearly 8:00 back to the main field. Of these breakaway riders Laurent Desbiens was the highest placed overall so he claimed the Yellow Jersey from Ullrich.
Ullrich would take back the Yellow as the race entered the Pyrenees but as these serious mountain stages began ‘The Pirate’ Marco Pantani started making moves and launching some serious attacks finishing 2nd in Stage 9, but still ahead of all of the GC riders and as he then won Stage 10 moving himself from irrelevant to 11th to 3rd overall as the Tour returned to the Sprinters’ stages.
In the flats the stages were won by Tom Steels, Daniele Nardello and Stuart O’Grady respectively with no major changes amongst the GC riders. In Stage 15 Pantani took over the race riding everyone off his wheel over the Col du Telegraphe and Col du Galibier with only Rodolfo Massi able to cross the line within 2:00 of The Pirate. Ullrich lost the Yellow and close to ten minutes dropping to 5th in the overall standings as Bobby Julich was able to limit his losses and move into 2nd place overall.
In Stage 16 Ullrich attacked relentlessly and was able to win the day jumping back up into 3rd place overall and just 0:14 behind Julich for 2nd, but Pantani was the only rider able to answer the Germans attack and he finished with the same time.
Stage 17, the final major Mountain Stage, was annulled and did not count as the riders held a strike due to the developing Festina Affair, the most shocking, disruptive scandal since "The Pollentier incident" at Alpe d'Huez more than a decade earlier. (See Doping at the Tour de France) Three entire teams abandoned the Tour in Stage 17 and one additional team left in Stage 19.
The Stage 20 ITT was won by Jan Ullrich with him gaining over two and a half minutes back on Pantani, but Pantani rode well enough to keep the Yellow Jersey and win the Tour de France, in the process completing the Giro-Tour double. American Bobby Julich rounded out the podium becoming just the 2nd American to finish on the podium after Tour Legend Greg Lemond. [11]
Doping
The 1998 tour was marred by several doping scandals throughout, together known as the Festina affair, starting with the arrest of Willy Voet, a soigneur in the French Festina team. Initially the doping suspicion only surrounded the two teams Festina and TVM, but later investigations and retrospective tests revealed the doping abuse was far more widespread. Therefore, this edition of the Tour also became nicknamed by many media sources, as the "Tour du Dopage" (Tour of Doping).
In 2004, 60 remaining antidoping samples given by riders during the 1998 Tour, were tested retrospectively for recombinant EPO by using three recently developed detection methods. The results of these tests were published to have returned 44 positives 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.[12]
In July 2013, the antidoping committee of the French Senate however 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 publication 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 Marco Pantani, runner-up Jan Ullrich, third on the podium Bobby Julich, and points-competition winner Erik Zabel.[13][14] Bobby Julich had already one year prior publication of his positive test, admitted using EPO from August 1996 to July 1998.[15] When combining the EPO abuse confessions of the two riders testing negative with all the positive test results, it was indicated that 35 out of the 38 retrospectively tested riders (92%) had been using EPO in the 1998 Tour de France.
In addition to those 92% of the 38 riders in the retrospective test, who either tested EPO positive or confessed EPO abuse, 9 out of 9 Festina riders and 2 out of 9 TVM riders, who were not tested by the retrospective test but implicated in prior police investigations, also confessed using EPO in the Tour. Finally at least five more riders, who were neither retrospectively tested nor a part of TVM/Festina, opted later on also to confess having doped with EPO in the 1998 edition of the Tour. All in all, more than 50 riders have now been confirmed either by tests/confessions, to have used EPO doping during the 1998 Tour de France.
Classification leadership
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.[16]
Additionally, there was a points classification, which awarded a green jersey. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing among the best in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a green jersey.[16]
There was also a mountains classification. The organisation had categorized some climbs as either hors catégorie, first, second, third, or fourth-category; points for this classification were won by the first cyclists that reached the top of these climbs first, with more points available for the higher-categorized climbs. The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a polkadot jersey.[16]
The fourth individual classification was the young rider classification, which was not marked by a jersey. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders under 26 years were eligible.[16]
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.[17]
For the combativity award classification, a jury gave points after each stage to the cyclists they considered most combative. The cyclist with the most votes in all stages lead the classification.
- In stage 1, Abraham Olano wore the green jersey.
Final standings
| Legend | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Denotes the winner of the general classification |  |
Denotes the winner of the points classification |
 |
Denotes the winner of the mountains classification |  |
Denotes the winner of the super-combativity award |
General classification
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Mercatone Uno–Bianchi | 92h 49' 46" |
| 2 | | Team Telekom | + 3' 21" |
| 3 |  | Cofidis | + 4' 08" |
| 4 | | Cofidis | + 9' 16" |
| 5 | | Rabobank | + 11' 26" |
| 6 | | U.S. Postal Service | + 14' 57" |
| 7 |  | Cofidis | + 15' 13" |
| 8 | | Mapei–Bricobi | + 16' 07" |
| 9 | | Mapei–Bricobi | + 17' 35" |
| 10 | | Team Polti | + 17' 39" |
Points classification
| Rank | Rider | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Team Telekom | 327 |
| 2 | | GAN | 230 |
| 3 | | Mapei–Bricobi | 221 |
| 4 | | Rabobank | 196 |
| 5 | | U.S. Postal Service | 151 |
| 6 | | GAN | 149 |
| 7 | | Cofidis | 114 |
| 8 | | Casino–Ag2r | 111 |
| 9 | | Asics–CGA | 99 |
| 10 | | Mercatone Uno–Bianchi | 90 |
Mountains classification
| Rank | Rider | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Cofidis | 200 |
| 2 | | Mercatone Uno–Bianchi | 175 |
| 3 | | Casino–Ag2r | 165 |
| 4 | | GAN | 156 |
| 5 | | Française des Jeux | 152 |
| 6 | | Team Telekom | 126 |
| 7 | | Cofidis | 98 |
| 8 | | Rabobank | 92 |
| 9 | | Saeco Macchine per Caffè | 90 |
| 10 | | Cofidis | 89 |
Young rider classification
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Team Telekom | 92h 53' 07" |
| 2 | | Cofidis | + 5' 55" |
| 3 | | Mapei–Bricobi | + 14' 14" |
| 4 | | Cofidis | + 30' 42" |
| 5 | | Team Polti | + 32' 20" |
| 6 | | Lotto–Mobistar | + 38' 02" |
| 7 | | home–Jack & Jones | + 47' 57" |
| 8 | | Rabobank | + 1h 26' 16" |
| 9 | | Team Polti | + 1h 28' 32" |
| 10 | | ONCE | + 1h 35' 24" |
Team classification
| Rank | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cofidis | 278h 29' 58" |
| 2 | Casino–Ag2r | + 29' 09" |
| 3 | U.S. Postal Service | + 41' 40" |
| 4 | Team Telekom | + 46' 01" |
| 5 | Lotto–Mobistar | + 1h 04' 14" |
| 6 | Team Polti | + 1h 06' 32" |
| 7 | Rabobank | + 1h 46' 20" |
| 8 | Mapei–Bricobi | + 1h 59' 53" |
| 9 | BigMat–Auber 93 | + 2h 03' 32" |
| 10 | Mercatone Uno–Bianchi | + 2h 23' 04" |
Combativity classification
| Rank | Rider | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Casino–Ag2r | 94 |
| 2 | | Mapei–Bricobi | 51 |
| 3 | | Française des Jeux | 49 |
| 4 | | GAN | 47 |
| 5 | | Casino–Ag2r | 43 |
| 6 | | Cofidis | 35 |
| 7 | | Asics–CGA | 33 |
| 8 | | BigMat–Auber 93 | 30 |
| 9 | | Cofidis | 28 |
| 10 | | Casino–Ag2r | 28 |
See also
Notes and references
Footnotes
References
- ↑ "Irish start for Tour de France: Cycling". Independent. 3 April 1997. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ↑ "1998 Tour de France Map". Sports Illustrated. 10 July 1998. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ↑ "Pirate takes yellow treasure". BBC Sport. 2 August 1998. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "85ème Tour de France 1998" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
- ↑ "News for October 26, 1997: Team Selection Criteria for the Tour de France 1998". Cyclingnews. Future Publishing Limited. 26 October 1997. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ↑ "News for February 6, 1998: Tour 1998". Cyclingnews. Future Publishing Limited. 6 February 1998. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- 1 2 "News for June 19, 1998: In the Tour de France". Cyclingnews. Future Publishing Limited. 19 June 1998. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ↑ Augendre 2016, p. 89.
- ↑ Zwegers, Arian. "Tour de France GC Top Ten". CVCC. Archived from the original on 10 June 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
- ↑ Augendre 2016, p. 110.
- ↑ http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdf1998.html. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ "1998 plane sur le centième Tour de France [1998 flat on the hundredth Tour de France]" (in French). Dernière Heure. 27 June 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
- ↑ "Cipollini, Livingston among 1998 Tour riders positive for EPO". VeloNews. 24 July 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
- ↑ "Rapport Fait au nom de la commission d'enquête sur l'efficacité de la lutte contre le dopage (Annexe 6: Résultats test EPO Tour De France 1998 et 1999)" (PDF). N° 782, Sénat Session Extraordinaire de 2012-2013 (in French). French Senate. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
- ↑ "Exclusive: Bobby Julich doping confession". CyclingNews. 25 October 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 Christian, Sarah (2 July 2009). "Tour de France demystified - Evaluating success". RoadCycling.co.nz Ltd. Archived from the original on 9 February 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
- ↑ Chauner, David; Halstead, Michael (1990). The Tour de France Complete Book of Cycling. Villard. ISBN 0679729364. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
- ↑ Mallon, Bill; Heijmans, Jeroen (9 September 2011). Historical Dictionary of Cycling. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 230. ISBN 978-0-8108-7369-8.
- ↑ "Etape 21 : Melun - Paris-Champs-Élysées (147,5 km) : Overall Youth". Tour de France. Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived from the original on 7 March 2000. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- ↑ "Etape 21 : Melun - Paris-Champs-Élysées (147,5 km) : Overall Combativity". Tour de France. Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived from the original on 25 December 1999. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
Sources
- Augendre, Jacques (2016). Guide historique [Historical guide] (PDF). Tour de France (in French). Paris: Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1998 Tour de France. |
- Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2 December 1998)
- 1998 Tour de France at Cyclingnews.com
