1998 Tour de France
Route of the 1998 Tour de France
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| 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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Winner |
 Marco Pantani (ITA)
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(Mercatone Uno–Bianchi) |
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| Second |
 Jan Ullrich (GER)
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(Team Telekom) | |
| Third |
 Bobby Julich (USA)
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(Cofidis) | |
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Points |
Erik Zabel (GER)
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(Team Telekom) |
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Mountains |
 Christophe Rinero (FRA)
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(Cofidis) |
| Youth |
Jan Ullrich (GER)
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(Team Telekom) | |
| Team | Cofidis | ||
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.
The 1998 edition of Tour de France was won by Marco Pantani, with podium placing of Jan Ullrich, the defending champion, and American Bobby Julich. 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.
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. 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. All these sixteen teams fulfilled this requirement. Later, the ASO gave wildcard invitions to four teams. with one team added by special invitation:
The teams entering the race were:
Qualified teams
Invited teams
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).
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