1998 Tour de France

On 4 March 1998, a truck belonging to the Dutch TVM–Farm Frites team was seized by customs officers 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.[60][61] 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.[62] 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.[63]

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.[64] A routine check revealed that he carried a large quantity of performance-enhancing drugs with him.[lower-alpha 3] He was thereafter placed under arrest, initially claiming they were "for personal use".[64] The following day, police carried out a search of Festina's headquarters in Meyzieu, close to Lyon.[66] On the day before the prologue, a judicial inquiry was opened by the public prosecutor's office and Voet was held for investigation,[66] with the story also breaking to the media.[65] The Tour's organisation as well as Festina were quick to dismiss the news as having nothing to do with the race.[67][68]

The 5.6 km (3.5 mi) route of the prologue time trial around the streets of Dublin, won by Chris Boardman (GAN)

Chris Boardman covered the 5.6 km (3.5 mi) route of the prologue time trial fastest with a time of 6:12.36 minutes,[69] gaining his third Tour prologue victory.[70] Olano finished second, four seconds slower. Third to sixth place went to Jalabert, Julich, Moreau, and Ullrich, all five seconds behind Boardman.[69] 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.[71] Boardman was awarded the yellow and green jerseys as the leader of both the general and points classification respectively.[72]

Tom Steels outsprinted Erik Zabel in stage 1's bunch sprint finish.[73] Steels came to the Tour with the full support of his Mapei–Bricobi squad for the sprints, unlike Zabel's Team Telekom who were focused on Ullrich's pursuit for overall victory.[53] Mario Cipollini (Saeco–Cannondale), a favourite for the stage win, was held up 8 km (5.0 mi) from the end when he was involved in a crash with his teammate, Frédéric Moncassin.[74][75] Steels took the lead of the points classification from Boardman, who retained the overall lead.[72] 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.[72][76]

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.[71][lower-alpha 4] This almost cost him, when during stage 2, which was raced largely on the wide N25 road,[78] crosswinds 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.[79] Boardman meanwhile hit his head badly on a stone wall beside the road. He was taken to hospital and had to abandon the Tour.[80] Mapei–Bricobi rider Ján Svorada was involved in a crash with 15 km (9.3 mi) to go, but was able to recover and win the bunch sprint finish.[81] Zabel, who before the stage stood in eighth position overall,[82] had collected enough time bonuses in the intermediate sprints to take the yellow jersey.[83]

Richard Virenque (pictured in 1993), the leader of the Festina–Lotus team, which was expelled from the Tour after stage 6 following its management's admission to doping.

Team Telekom's Jens Heppner won stage 3 from a two-rider sprint with Xavier Jan of Française des Jeux, after the pair had escaped late from a nine-rider breakaway. Bo Hamburger of Casino–Ag2r, who won two of the three intermediate sprints whilst in the escape group, took the overall lead.[84] Svorada took the lead of the points classification, while Festina's Pascal Hervé led the mountains classification.[72] The second and third-placed riders in the now much-changed general classification also came from the breakaway, with George Hincapie (U.S. Postal Service) two seconds down on Hamburger, and Stuart O'Grady (GAN) a further second behind.[85] 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.[86][87] Cipollini suffered his third crash of the Tour at the end of stage 4,[88] accumulating eight separate injuries,[89] but was able to avoid the multiple crashes in the next stage to win the bunch sprint finish.[90] 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.[91] Cipollini won the following stage, from a bunch sprint into Brive-la-Gaillarde.[92]

As the ferry reached French soil overnight into 14 July, the day of stage 3, all team vehicles were meticulously searched at customs.[54] 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.[66] Before the start of stage 5,[93] 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.[66] 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.[94]

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.[95]

Stage 7, the hilly and technical first long individual time trial, was won by Ullrich, 1:10 minutes ahead of U.S. Postal Service'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.[96] Zanini regained the polka dot jersey.[72] 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 Casino–Ag2r, 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 Cofidis's Laurent Desbiens taking the yellow jersey.[97] Temperatures increased to a high of 44 °C (111 °F) during the following stage, which was won by Rabobank 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 (GAN) collected enough mountains classification points from within the breakaway to take the polka-dot jersey.[98] Two-time stage winner Cipollini dropped out during this stage.[99][lower-alpha 5]

Stage 10's descent on the eastern side of the Col d'Aubisque mountain pass (pictured) saw a total of 30 riders fall in the wet and foggy conditions.[101]

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 15.5 km (9.6 mi) of downhill to the finish line.[102] A total of 30 riders fell on the wet and foggy descent of the Aubisque, including overall contenders Olano, Jalabert and Francesco Casagrande,[103] with the latter being one of six that retired from the race.[102] A three-rider breakaway of Cédric Vasseur (GAN) and Casino–Ag2r teammates Rodolfo Massi and Alberto Elli formed by the foot of the Tourmalet. The pace set by Team Telekom 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 13 km (8.1 mi)-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,[104] who took the stage victory as well as the lead of the mountains classification.[102] 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.[105]

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 45 km (28 mi), 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.[106][107] As the field reached the bottom of the 16 km (9.9 mi) 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 4 km (2.5 mi) from the finish to attack, and after passing the sole breakaway rider, Roland Meier (Cofidis), he took the stage win.[108][109] 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.[110] Olano, a notable pre-race favourite, withdrew from the Tour halfway through the stage.[111]

Laurent Jalabert (pictured in 1993) of the ONCE team was an influential figure in both of the Tour's rider sit-down protests during stages 12 and 17.

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.[112] 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."[113]

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.[113] The instigators of the strike were Jalabert, Blijlevens, Max Sciandri (Française des Jeux), and Prudencio Induráin (Vitalicio Seguros) as well as ONCE's team manager Manolo Saiz.[114] 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 16 km (9.9 mi) ahead, and the race started, exactly two hours after the scheduled time. It was at this point that the stage was officially started.[115] After about 40 km (25 mi), Jalabert then went on the attack over a short climb with his brother Nicolas (Cofidis) and Bart Voskamp (TVM),[116] with the group building up a lead of about five minutes.[115] Team Telekom gave chase at a high pace, temporarily putting Pantani into difficulty as crosswinds created echelons in the peloton.[117][118] 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.[119][116] The stage, shortened by 16 km (9.9 mi) to account for the delay caused by the strike, was run at an average speed of 48.764 km/h (30.301 mph), the third-fastest stage in Tour history.[120]

Stage 13 saw a breakaway by six riders, among them Daniele Nardello and Andrea Tafi, both of Team Mapei–Bricobi. 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 (Team Polti) put in an attack, but was brought back by Riis.[121] 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.[122] 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".[123] Pantani, who still stood at fourth overall, was quoted saying: "My main goal now is to win in Les Deux-Alpes."[122]

One of the racing bicycles that was used by Marco Pantani during the Tour's mountain stages

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.[124] 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 (Cofidis) and Marcos-Antonio Serrano (Kelme–Costa Blanca). 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.[125] 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.[126] With 6 km (3.7 mi) remaining to the summit of the Galibier, Pantani made the decisive move of the race, attacking from the group of favourites.[127] 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.[128] 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.[129]

Before the following stage to Albertville, speculation spread that Ullrich would abandon the race.[130] 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 17 km (11 mi) 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.[131]

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.[132]

Marco Pantani (pictured in 1997) was the overall winner of the Tour, completing the Giro–Tour double, as he had also won the Giro d'Italia earlier in the season.

Before stage 18 into Neuchâtel in Switzerland, police held Massi, who was still the leader in the mountains classification, for questioning after corticoids were allegedly found in his room during a search of the Casino team hotel.[lower-alpha 6] He was therefore unable to start the stage,[134] and the lead of the mountains classification was passed to the second placed rider, Rinero.[72] Victory went to Steels, who outsprinted Zabel and O'Grady at the finish.[134] 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 (GAN) coming out on top.[135]

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.[136] 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.[137] Ullrich ended the Tour in second place, with a deficit of 3:21 minutes, with Julich a further 47 seconds behind in third.[138] 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.[139] Zabel won his third consecutive points classification with a total of 327, 97 ahead of O'Grady in second.[140][141] 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.[142] Due to the high number of abandons because of the Festina affair, only 96 riders reached the finish in Paris.[138] Only Team Telekom and U.S. Postal Service ended the Tour with all nine riders still racing.[143]

The prevalence of EPO in the cycling peloton had been a topic of debate since the early 1990s.[144] The first news stories about the drug appeared in 1994.[145] 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,[lower-alpha 7] 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.[146] 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.[149] 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.[150]

The doping scandal that occurred throughout the Tour became known as the Festina affair,[151] starting with the arrest of Voet.[152] 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"[153][154][155] or "Tour du Dopage" (Tour of Doping).[156][157][158] 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.[159]

Many riders in the Tour reacted to the developing scandal by hiding or destroying evidence of doping. Rolf Aldag (Team Telekom) said he flushed his doping products down the toilet before the race began in Dublin.[160] His teammate Bjarne Riis said in his autobiography that he disposed of his vials of EPO in the toilet after stage 3.[161] Likewise, the U.S. Postal team flushed their drugs down the toilet following Voet's arrest, according to Tyler Hamilton.[162] 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.[163] Julich said he quit doping altogether during the 1998 Tour.[164]

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 hormones.[165] The Festina riders were placed under custody and brought into individual prison cells, and allegedly subjected to cavity searches. 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.[lower-alpha 8][167] 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.[168]

On 23 July, the Tour's rest day, TVM's manager Cees Priem and team doctor Andrei Mikhailov were arrested by the police.[169] At the beginning of August, team soigneur Johannes Moors was taken into custody as well.[170] Priem and Moors were released on 10 August.[171] The TVM riders were also questioned by the police on 4 August and held for about 12 hours, before they were released.[172] However, no banned substances were found during the raid at TVM's team hotel during the Tour.[173] 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.[174] 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.[175]

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.[176] Virenque confessed during a court hearing concerning the Festina affair, on 24 October 2000.[177] Virenque received a nine-month racing ban and a suspended prison sentence.[lower-alpha 9] 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".[179]

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.[180][181] 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.[182]

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.[183][184] Julich had already admitted in 2012 that he had used EPO from August 1996 to July 1998.[185]