The 1996 Tour de France was the 83rd Tour de France, starting on 29 June and ending on 21 July, featuring 19 regular stages, 2 individual time trials, a prologue and a rest day (10 July).
This Tour was noted by the "fall" of favorite Miguel Indurain, ending his then record run of five consecutive victories. The course included a stage through his home town Villava, however he suffered a bronchitis because of the poor weather in the first week, and was fined and penalised for accepting drinks illegally. Indurain started to lose time in stage 7, and finally ended 11th failing to win a single stage or spend one day in the yellow jersey.
Stage 9 was scheduled to be a 176 kilometer ride from Val-d'Isère to Sestriere. However, due to appalling weather conditions, including snow, the organizers cut the stage to just 46 km. Bjarne Riis won the stage and opened a crucial 44 second gap over Jan Ullrich. Ullrich, only 22, really broke through in this Tour, and won the individual time trial of stage 20.
Several riders with Team Telekom have confessed to doping offences around the period of the 1996 tour, including support riders Rolf Aldag, Udo Bölts, Christian Henn and Brian Holm and team masseur Jef d'Hont has admitted in his autobiography that there was organised use of EPO in the team. On 24 May 2007, Erik Zabel admitted to using EPO during the first week of the race. The winner of the Tour, Bjarne Riis, admitted on 25 May 2007 that he also used EPO during the Tour, as a result he has been asked by the International Cyling Union (UCI) to return the yellow jersey he received. So far, runner-up Jan Ullrich, who has been under suspicion of doping as a part of the Operación Puerto doping case, has not commented on allegations that he also used EPO. Third place Richard Virenque and fourth place Laurent Dufaux were implicated in the 1998 Festina scandal.
Although UCI lawyer Philippe Verbiest has stated that the statute of limitations for removing Riis as winner of the Tour de France has expired, "you cannot strip him of the title but it possible not to mention it anymore ... Because of what he admitted, he is not the winner of the Tour de France. Riis did not win." Tour spokesman Philippe Sudres also stated that: "We consider philosophically that he can no longer claim to have won.". Riis' victory no longer stands in the Tour de France record books. But the following year Bjarne Riis was reinstated as winner of Tour de France 1996.
Read more about 1996 Tour De France: Participants, Stages, Results
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