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Where are they now? Lance Armstrong’s 1999 Tour de France US Postal team

The main players in the infamous squad, 25 years on from the Texan's first yellow jersey

A quarter of a century has passed since the 1999 Tour de France , which promised a new era for the sport of professional cycling. It delivered, but not the way it set out to do.

The 1999 edition was dubbed the ‘Tour of Renewal’, coming 12 months after the Festina scandal had shaken the sport to its very foundations. Widespread doping within the peloton had been laid shockingly bare and, after the 1998 Tour somehow made it all the way to Paris, the sport was supposed to have turned the page and started on a fresh, clean, slate.

How farcical that now seems. The 1999 Tour de France was the first in a run of seven successive Tours that do not have a winner. The man standing in yellow atop the podium in Paris on all of those occasions was, of course, Lance Armstrong , the cancer survivor who wrote a story that was, it turned out, too good to be true.

A lot has changed in the past 25 years. Armstrong’s eventual confession to doping, after years of whistles blown, investigations pursued, and lawsuits lodged, sent shockwaves through the sport. The riders on that US Postal squad for the 1999 Tour were all, to differing degrees, caught up in the storm.

But how have they landed now the dust has settled? How do they fill their days? And how are their relationships with not just with Armstrong but with cycling?

There were nine riders on the team – “an odd bunch”, Armstrong once said – and one infamous team manager. Here’s what they’re all up to in 2024.

Lance Armstrong

The rider at the heart of it all needs little introduction. He is the most famous cyclist of all time, his rise and fall making for one of the most extraordinary narratives in sporting history.

Armstrong remains banned for life from professional cycling, and while he might have spent several years in the wilderness, fighting lawsuits and flirting with financial ruin, his rehabilitation has gathered pace in recent years, most notably through the launch and growth of his podcast operation. The podcast is named The Move, and currently sits as high as fifth in the US sport podcast charts, but it’s part of a wider stable named WEDU, a company founded by Armstrong in 2016.

It was a different podcast, The Forward, that kick-started the whole thing, with Armstrong insisting he didn’t want to make a cycling podcast and going out to interview figures from the wider world. However, the output there has become more sporadic as The Move, very much a cycling podcast, has taken flight in the past few years. There are spin-off shows, camps in destinations such as Mallorca, and a healthy array of sponsors.

WEDU, which stands for ‘we do’, was conceived as a community for endurance sport enthusiasts, and also features two sportives in the US, the Aspen Fifty and the Texas Hundred. It’s one of Armstrong’s two main business pursuits, alongside Next Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests primarily in the health and wellbeing sector. Armstrong knows the potential of investment better than most; he credits an early purchase of shares in Uber with ‘saving’ his family, amid a claimed bill of $111m in lawsuit losses.

Armstrong still does some charity outreach, still trains extensively on and off the bike, and still has his bike shop in Austin, Mellow Johnny’s – a play on ‘maillot jaune’, seven of which are proudly displayed on the walls.

But it’s The Move that has thrust Armstrong back into mainstream public consciousness on a regular basis, and in that respect there has seemingly been a softening in public perception. It wasn’t so long ago that Armstrong was so disgraced no one would be seen near him. Pro cyclists would be deemed tainted by association and his appearance at a charity ride taking place a day ahead of the Tour de France in 2015 caused a huge controversy. Nowadays, current pros are regular guests on his podcast, from stars such as Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas to up-and-coming Americans like Matteo Jorgensen. Likewise, he has enough partnerships with brands not to be considered any kind of outcast.

So while his sins may never be forgiven, they are perhaps starting to be forgotten, the edge being chipped off the outrage, if only due to the gradual passing of time.

Tyler Hamilton

Tyler Hamilton has a cycling coaching business. So far, so very predictable. But the Montana native also has the most normal, real-person, job of anyone on this list. He’s a financial advisor. Or, to go full Linkedin, he directs investor relations at Black Swift Group. And so, in the hands of one of the most well-known cyclists of recent times, a profession that wouldn’t set many dinner parties alight suddenly becomes rather fascinating. Many former elite athletes go into business as entrepreneurs, but most don’t have the stomach for the suit and tie five days a week.

Hamilton had studied economics at college, dropping out to pursue his cycling career, but moving into finance was far from a clear-cut post-racing route. In fact, it took him a long time to figure out what to do, and at this point it’s worth circling back to his career and remembering Hamilton as something of a tortured soul. He was the most important rider for Armstrong in 1999, the highest-level lieutenant who would leave in 2002 to chase his own dreams, finishing runner-up at that year’s Giro d’Italia and fourth at the following year’s Tour. However, in 2004 he was found out for blood doping, losing an Olympic gold medal. While he did return to the sport following a two-year ban, he tested positive again and a new eight-year sanction ended his career in 2009.

Hamilton initially upheld the omertà but was subpoenaed as part of the US Postal federal investigation and that was the catalyst for an about-turn. Ever since, he has run like a tap, and it has proved hugely cathartic. Hamilton has been open about the fact he suffered from depression since his best days as a rider, and his whole post-racing life has been testament to the power of letting go of secrets and their baggage. After coming clean to his family and the media, Hamilton penned one of the most explosive sports books of all time, The Secret Race , which came out at a time when the walls were closing in around Armstrong, but little was known of the sordid behind-the-scenes details of daily doping. The book led to another secondary career, as a motivational speaker. That won’t have pleased some of the riders on this list, but there does seem to be an authenticity to Hamilton’s remorse, in that even now when you hear him speak, he still seems troubled by the past, the irony being that the one who has confronted it most directly has perhaps had the hardest time leaving it behind.

As the momentum drained from the speaking duties, Hamilton, alongside his coaching company, Tyler Hamilton Training, trained as a real estate agent in 2015 but soon realised he wasn’t cut out for it. It wasn’t until 2019, when he was approached by an old friend, that he entered the world of finance and investment, and he hasn’t looked back, regularly travelling from his home in Montana to Black Swift Group’s Colorado HQ to cultivate their client base.

Hamilton says he couldn’t face riding his bike for a number of years but has fallen back in love with it, albeit in a different way. He has taken bike packing trips all over the world, and now many of his pedal strokes are spent pulling a trailer containing his three-year-old son from his third marriage. Yoga and meditation also help to keep his mental health in shape.

Pascal Deramé

An internet search and a social media scan sheds no light on how Pascal Deramé fills his days. Our approach via a phone number we dug out remains unanswered, and our enquiries with French cycling insiders yield little progress, either. “He vanished!” says one.

The sole Frenchman on the line-up had a relatively low-key career, retiring after seven years and with one victory to his name. He was a pure domestique, signed ostensibly to add a French ally for Jean-Cyril Robin in 1998, but proving a useful workhorse for Armstrong in 1999, although he’d leave for French team Bonjour by the turn of the season.

Deramé hung up his wheels after the 2002 season and has faded into the background. He remained involved in cycling at a lower-level in France, becoming a director of the long-running U Nantes amateur team in his native Brittany, with a particular focus on developing young talent. He reportedly joined on a voluntary basis at first, before taking up a salaried position, so the love for the sport must have still run deep.

Sadly, he was dismissed in 2017 after more than 15 years of service, as the team faced financial issues. Either the team cut the rider roster or got rid of a director and, as the highest paid, Deramé was the fall guy. “I prefer to hang onto the good memories of the moments we shared, the super guys I met, and a sponsor faithful to cycling,” he told Ouest France .

However, a journalist for that same newspaper informs us that Deramé took it heavily, and cut all ties with cycling. Apparently, he attempted to open a supermarket on the outskirts of Nantes, but didn’t manage to get the project off the ground. He’s said to be living somewhere among the vineyards of Nantes.

George Hincapie

George Hincapie forged a reputation as Armstrong’s sidekick, and that remains the case to this day. He was the only rider by the Texan’s side for all seven of his Tour de France ‘victories’, and he’s now his business partner and co-host of The Move.

With a bigger, heavier physique, Hincapie was more of a Classics specialist, who podiumed Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders and won three US road race titles. As such, he was deployed in the versatile rouleur role and his importance was underlined by his list of races in Armstrong’s service. In fact, only one rider in history has ridden more Tours than his tally of 17. After Armstrong’s initial retirement, Hincapie helped Alberto Contador to Tour de France glory in 2007, before linking up with the up-and-coming Mark Cavendish at Columbia, and then landing another yellow jersey with Cadel Evans at BMC in 2011. He finally confessed to doping in 2012 following the publication of the USADA Reasoned Decision, although he claimed he had raced clean after 2006. 

He has gone on to launch several business ventures, most notably alongside his brother, Rich, a business graduate. Most revolve around cycling, but the pair also opened a luxury guest house in South Carolina, named Hotel Domestique, which in fairness still brings it back to cycling. Rich had already established Hincapie Sportswear, a cycling apparel brand, in 2003, and George joined forces once retired. The brand would be the title sponsor of another joint initiative, a US-based cycling team established in 2012 as a feeder team to BMC Racing. Despite blooding the likes of Toms Skujins and Joey Rosskopf before rising to ProContinental status in 2018, the pandemic was a crushing blow for the set-up and its prospects of competing in Europe, and so it was shut down in 2020.

The Hincapies have since added another arm to their eponymous brand, in the form of a series of Gran Fondos, which now counts five events throughout the USA. Remarkably, one of George’s two sons, Enzo, won the Chattanooga event in 2022 at the age of just 13. His father rode as a luxury domestique that day, and still rides his bike extensively, whether it’s in South Carolina or on the road with The Move.

In short, George is hardly twiddling his thumbs, and the Hincapie name could well reverberate around the cycling world for years to come.

Jonathan Vaughters

Jonathan Vaughters did not play much of a part in the 1999 Tour de France, crashing out on stage 2 as the peloton split on the exposed tidal road that links the island of Noirmoutier with mainland France. However, he has since enjoyed the most prominent role within professional cycling of anyone in the squad.

Vaughters is the general manager of the EF Education EasyPost team, who are currently racing their 17th consecutive Tour de France – a success story in itself. His reabsorption back into the centre of the fold still appears to irk those who are forced to watch on from the sidelines, and it’s safe to say the wounds have never healed. After his retirement in 2003, Vaughters reinvented himself as an anti-doping activist, which has earned him respect in some quarters and derision in others: just last week he was branded a “hypocrite clown” by Johan Bruyneel, the boss of US Postal in 1999 (more on him shortly).

In any case, Vaughters went to found the Slipstream Sports set-up, taking it from a small US operation to a 2008 Tour de France debut with a clean philosophy and another rider on this list, Christian Vande Velde, who would finish fourth at that year’s Tour.

Vaughters took the team to the WorldTour the following year and they’ve remained there ever since, which is quite something given his status as a leading voice in calling out the dysfunctional economic ecosystem of pro cycling. The team came very close to folding in 2017, just after Rigoberto Urán finished runner-up in the Tour. The stress of trying to save it, which involved a crowdfunding campaign, was partly to blame for the collapse of his second marriage, according to Vaughters, who also pointed to his diagnosis of autism the following year.

Vaughters has never had the financial freedom of the biggest teams, but his longevity is surely testament to a certain resilience and innovative streak. He has largely had to resort to 'moneyball' signings and while results have been mixed, there’s no arguing with the success of EF’s ‘alternative’ calendar, which has seen the popular free spirit Lachlan Morton headline a feel-good tour of two-wheeled adventures beyond the confines of the elite pro road scene. It’s no exaggeration to say the initiative has reimagined what sponsorship activation and athlete engagement look like in the modern day, and while Vaughters remains a divisive figure, few would argue his team lacks personality or identity.

Vaughters splits his time between his European base in Girona, Spain, and his home city of Denver, Colorado, where he houses a cellar dedicated to his primary non-cycling passion: wine.

Peter Meinert-Nielsen

One of only two non-US riders on the squad, Peter Meinert-Nielsen became a sports director in retirement, and works in cycling now, but wait until you hear what he did in between. He was a kitchen salesman. In 2004 he ran a store of the Hanstholm chain of luxury kitchens and homeware. The store closed down but he spent the last few years of his tenure operating out of his own home in Torring.

Meinert-Nielsen was the oldest of the 1999 US Postal Tour de France squad, at 33 and with 12 Grand Tours already under his belt. That Tour was to be his last, and he still regrets not finishing it, a crash ruling him out on stage 13. He joined the Danish team Fakta in 2000, in what proved to be his final season sue to waning motivation. In retirement, he moved straight into a management role at Fakta. That was until he got into kitchens.

He had a short second stint as a DS with Blue Water in 2013 but the following year he would start the occupation that keeps him busy to this day: helping get more people into cycling. Meinert-Nielsen works as a consultant for the DGI, a non-governmental association of amateur clubs in Denmark, which aims to increase sports participation at grass roots level. He operates in the Jutland region, putting on rides, offering guidance, and helping cycling clubs boost membership numbers.

Meinert-Nielsen has also started appearing as a pundit on Discovery’s cycling coverage in Denmark, but he still leaves plenty of time for riding his bike. Gravel is his thing now, and he’s also partial to a spot of bikepacking and cyclo-tourism. Whatever it is, he lives for it, as a quick scroll through his Instagram will tell you. He describes headwinds as “lovely” and gravel riding as “pure conditioner for the soul”. Now there’s a man who’s still in love with the bike.

Christian Vande Velde

US cycling fans will likely be familiar enough with Christian Vande Velde, given he’s on their screens every day this month. Remarkably, the Chicago native has already racked up a decade’s worth of broadcasting experience, appearing as an analyst on NBC’s Tour de France coverage for the first time in 2014, the first year of his racing retirement. Since then, he has become an authoritative voice for US viewers, although these day’s he’s found mostly on a motorbike, doing the roving reporting role from within the peloton.

Vande Velde was only just getting going when he lined up for the 1999 Tour as a 23-year-old second-year pro, and he has described a blissful sort of naivety as the whole experience washed over him and the magnitude of it escaped him. He only rode one further Tour for Armstrong before leaving for Liberty Seguros in 2004 and then finding his feet at CSC. It was under the guidance of 1999 Tour teammate Vaughters, however, that things really clicked, as he blossomed into a GC rider with Slipstream/Garmin, placing fourth at the 2008 Tour de France and eighth a year later.

The latter years of Vande Velde’s career were blighted by crashes. He confessed to doping following the publication of the USADA Reasoned Decision in 2012, but claimed he had "started racing clean again well before joining Slipstream". He served a six-month ban before seeing out a short final season in 2013. 

Still, Vande Velde was not deemed persona non grata. He was quickly snapped up by NBC and threw himself into a number of other projects, including rider representation for the CPA riders’ union, with a focus on the US continent.

He soon signed up with Peloton as a celebrity coach, leading virtual indoor training sessions for the exercise bike brand. However, he stopped early in 2020 to launch his own training platform, an app named The Breakaway. Founded alongside two former Strava employees, it takes users’ data to create, with the help of AI, tailored training plans. The app is going strongly but Vande Velde recently announced his return to Peloton as a guest instructor.

Vande Velde moved to South Carolina after leaving his European base of Girona in retirement, and can regularly be seen out riding with Hincapie.

Kevin Livingston

Kevin Livingston was a close friend of Armstrong, and is so again now, but their relationship suffered a notorious blip. Livingston, who’d been headhunted to join US Postal in 1999 after riding with Armstrong at Motorola, deigned to move on after just two seasons and two Tours. What’s more, he wound up working for Armstrong’s arch-rival, Jan Ullrich. Livingston had intended to join the Linda McCartney team after asking for more money and more freedom, which already irked Armstrong, but when that fell through, he ended up doing what Armstrong likened to US Army general Normal Schwarzkopf defecting to communist China.

The pair did re-build their bridges in the wake of Livingston’s shock early retirement after the 2002 season. Livingston continued to live in Armstrong’s hometown of Austin, where he’d moved during their Motorola days. He even opened a base for his retirement project, the Pedal Hard coaching company, in the basement of Armstrong’s bike shop, Mellow Johnny’s. For many years, Livingston operated out of this centre, which included an indoor training hub and a Retul-equipped bike fitting service. This, however, has now shut down.

Livingston also worked with the Trek-Livestrong U23 team and has been involved in race organisation for events in the USA. However, he has consistently kept a low profile, the only sign of him on social media being the roller skiing (a drylands form of cross-country skiing) activities – and the occasional ride – he uploads to Strava. We were unable to get hold of him for this piece and, in his recent biography of Jan Ullrich, Daniel Friebe recounts his own efforts to track Livingston down, which went as far as turning up at Mellow Johnny’s unannounced.

“I spot a shop clerk, tell him why I’m here, to which the colleague responds that he’ll go and fetch Kevin. A minute or two later, the same gentleman returns to uneasily tell me that, no luck, it turns out Kevin’s not around. When I relate all of this to Armstrong the next day,” Friebe continues, “he shakes his head. ‘I don’t get it,’ he mutters. His efforts to solicit Livingston on my behalf come to nothing.”

Frankie Andreu

Armstrong has turned on most riders on this list in one way or another, and while bonds may have been repaired among most, the bridges that were burned between him and Frankie Andreu are as good as irreparable. Andreu and his wife, Betsy, are best known as whistleblowers in the whole saga and while it’d take too long to go over the whole affair here, suffice to say it got very, very ugly.

Andreu was an elder statesman of the 1999 Tour squad, a 32-year-old who had already ridden seven Tours. He’d ridden with Armstrong at Motorola, and played an important road captain role but only for two of the ‘victories’, retiring in 2000, although he did dabble as an assistant team director in 2001 and 2002.

Andreu has made a name for himself with microphone in hand, and that started on Universal Sports’ Tour de France television coverage, where he was cast in a reporter role and, somewhat bizarrely, made his way around the buses trying to grab words with, among others, his former teammates.

Andreu did make attempts to get into team management but never had much luck, partly because, he says, of the whole Armstrong affair. He was fired from Toyota-United in 2006, which he pointed out coincided with the controversy surrounding his testimony, and he only lasted several months at the ill-fated Rock Racing set-up. He then managed five years as DS at the Kenda Pro Cycling team but suggested in his USADA affidavit they weren’t getting race invites due to his feud with Armstrong. “I have been told that my public disputes with Lance Armstrong have made it more difficult for others in the cycling industry to work with me because they fear reprisal from Lance and his associates,” he stated.

Andreu has instead thrown himself into his broadcasting. Despite no longer being a part of TV Tour de France coverage, he has established a successful announcement and commentary business, Andreu Racing LLC, which sees him perform as the official speaker for a number of events, from US crit racing and Gran Fondos to running events and triathlons. He performs the master of ceremonies role pre and post-race, as well as often commentating on live streaming coverage, and judging by his schedule, he’s not short of work.

Johan Bruyneel

Pulling the strings of this nine-man squad was the infamous Johan Bruyneel, a Belgian team director inextricably linked with Armstrong’s rise and fall, and by extension with the very worst of cycling’s doping excesses. In fact, his name still seems to carry super-villain connotations, not quite in the ‘he-who-must-not-be-named’ manner of a Michele Ferrari, but not far off. That’s because, like Ferrari and like Armstrong, he is banned from the sport of professional cycling for the rest of his life.

Bruyneel was initially handed a 10-year ban, but halfway through it was upgraded to life, although he appears to have avoided the worst of the million-dollar financial impact of the US lawsuits by virtue of living abroad, calling Madrid home for a number of years. Nevertheless, Bruyneel has opened up about the toll of the fallout from the scandal, saying his physical and mental health declined as he hit “rock bottom”. His close alliance with Armstrong was undimmed and if anything the pair grew closer. “When I was in really deep trouble – and there were many times when I was in really deep trouble – he was there, unquestioning and without hesitating: 'What do you need?’,” Bruyneel told the Dutch journalist Raymond Kerckhoffs in 2020. “I think that that reinforced our bond.”

Bruyneel remains closely linked to Armstrong in business, as a central member of the Wedu operation. He regularly appears on The Move, has his own spin-off podcast JB2, and hosts the Spanish version – La Movida – in perfect Spanish. For those who don’t listen to those podcasts, Bruyneel sits most prominently in the public imagination for his output on X (formerly Twitter) , where his bio sets out his stall in no uncertain terms: “Calling out bullshitters and hypocrites.”

Vaughters, as we’ve touched upon, is a favourite target in this regard. As recently as last week, it was revealed that the EF rider Andrea Piccolo had been stopped at a border on suspicion of trafficking human growth hormone (itself a throwback to the old days), with Vaughters showing the media a text message from the rider. “LEAKY Jonathan Vaughters has been at it again, doing what he does best: leaking private and personal messages to save his own ass,” cried Bruyneel.

Few are safe from Bruyneel’s cynical, scathing barbs. The World Anti-Doping Agency and UCI president are regularly taken on, but there are also a few more surprising hits, such as a recent insinuation against the former Belgian world champion Philippe Gilbert and a somewhat bizarre eagerness to undermine the Gen-Z social media commentariat. The latter in particular, whether he has a point or not, adds to a look that gives frustration and insecurity. Professional cycling mostly seems to irritate Bruyneel, and yet he remains resolutely attached to it, bitterly suckered to the perspex window. When he’s looking in on so many of his fellow former sinners, can you really blame him?

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Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.

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1999 Tour de France results

86th edition: july 3 - july 25, 1999, results, stages with running gc, map, photos and history.

1998 Tour | 2000 Tour | Tour de France database | Quick Facts | Final GC | Stage results with running GC | The Story of the 1999 Tour de France

1999 Tour de France map

Les Woodland's book Dirty Feet: How the great unwashed created the Tour is France is available as an audiobook here . For the print or Kindle eBook versions, just cick on the Amazon link on the right.

1999 Tour de France Quick Facts:

3,686.8 km, traveled at a then record average speed of 40.276 km/hr.

180 starters and 141 classified finishers

Erik Zabel wins his 4th Green Jersey for best sprinter.

Richard Virenque wins his 5th Polka Dot Jersey for best climber.

For various reason, the winners of the previous three Tours (Ullrich, Pantani and Riis) did not participate.

The Tour was effectively won by Armstrong in the second stage when there was a mass crash, destroying the hopes of his competitors, notably Alex Zülle.

This did not become apparent until the stage nine finish at Setrieres, where Armstrong's lead was a solid 6min 3sec

In 2012 Lance Armstrong was stripped of all of his Tour wins after his doping became known.

• Lance Armstrong (US Postal) 91hr 32min 16sec
• Alex Zülle (Banesto) @ 7min 37sec
• Fernando Escartin (Kelme) @ 10min 26sec
• Laurent Dufaux (Saeco) @ 14min 43sec
• Angel Luis Casero (Vitalicio Seguros) @ 15min 11sec
• Abraham Olano (ONCE) @ 16min 47sec
• Daniele Nardello (Mapei) @ 17min 2sec
• Richard Virenque (Polti) @ 17min 28sec
• Wladimir Belli (Festina) @ 17min 37sec
• Andrea Peron (ONCE) @ 23min 10sec
• Kurt Van De Wouwer (Lotto) @ 23min 32sec
• David Etxebarria (ONCE) @ 26min 41sec
• Tyler Hamilton (US Postal) @ 26min 53sec
• Stéphane Heulot (FDJ) @ 27min 58sec
• Roland Meier (Cofidis) @ 28min 44sec
• Benoît Salmon @ 28min 59sec
• Alberto Elli (Telekom) @ 33min 39sec
• Paolo Lanfranchi (Mapei) @ 34min 14sec
• Carlos Contreras (Kelme) @ 34min 53sec
• Georg Totschnig (Telekom) @ 37min 10sec
• Mario Aerts (Lotto) @ 39min 21sec
• Giuseppe Guerini (Telekom) @ 39min 29sec
• Gianni Faresin (Mapei) @ 40min 28sec
• Álvaro González de Galdeano (Vitalicio Seguros) @ 43min 39sec
• Marcos Antonio Serrano (ONCE) @ 45mn 3sec
• Francisco Tomas García (Vitalicio Seguros) @ 45min 31sec
• Christophe Moreau (Festina) @ 45min 34sec
• Francisco Mancebo (Banesto) @ 50min 31sec
• Luis Perez (ONCE) @ 52min 53sec
• François Simon (Credit Agricole) @ 53min 21sec
• Armin Meier (Saeco) @ 1hr 0min 10sec
• Stefano Garzelli (Mercatone Uno) @ 1hr 0min 45sec
• Javier Pascual (Kelme) @ 1hr 1min 20sec
• Massimiliano Lelli (Cofidis) @ 1hr 1min 27sec
• Alexandre Vinokourov (Casino) @ 1hr 2min 23sec
• Kevin Livingston (US Postal) @ 1hr 6min 10sec
• José Joaquim Castelblanco (Kelme) @ 1hr 8min 5sec
• Salvatore Commesso (Saeco) @ 1hr 9min 15sec
• César Solaun (Banesto) @ 1hr 10min 1sec
• Udo Bölts (Telekom) @ 1hr 11min 51sec
• Steve De Wolf (Cofidis) @ 1hr 11min 54sec
• Frédéric Bessy (Casino) @ 1hr 15min 26sec
• Miguel Angel Peña (Banesto) @ 1hr 19min 26sec
• Laurent Madouas (Festina) @ 1hr 20min 42sec
• Geert Verheyen (Lotto) @ 1hr 23min 24sec
• José Luis Arrieta (Banesto) @ 1hr 24min 29sec
• Francisco Javier Cerezo (Vitalicio Seguros) @ 1hr 26min 50sec
• Thierry Bourguignon (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 1hr 27min 43sec
• Manuel Fernández (Mapei) @ 1hr 30min 20sec
• Mariano Piccoli (Lampre) @ 1hr 31min 21sec
• Lylian Lebreton (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 1hr 32min 51sec
• Jean-Cyril Robin (FDJ) @ 1hr 33min 14sec
• Marco Fincato (Merctone Uno) @ 1hr 36min 57sec
• Jon Odriozola (Banesto) @ 1hr 41min 55sec
• Marco Serpellini (Lampre) @ 1hr 42min 4sec
• Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) @ 1hr 42min 22sec
• Fabian Jeker (Festina) @ 1hr 42min 25sec
• Rafael Diaz (ONCE) @ 1hr 43min 36sec
• José Javier Gomez (Kelme) @ 1hr 45min 50sec
• Jens Voigt (Credit Agricole) @ 1hr 47min 47sec
• Santos González (ONCE) @ 1hr 48min 21sec
• Dimitri Konyschev (Mercatone Uno) @ 1hr 49min 10sec
• Peter Farazijn (Cofidis) @ 1hr 55min 1sec
• Hernán Buenahora (Vatalicio Seguros) @ 1hr 55min 33sec
• Frankie Andreu (US Postal) @ 1hr 59min 1sec
• Stefano Cattai (Polti) @ 1hr 59min 49sec
• Christophe Oriol (Casino) @ 2hr 1min 6sec
• José Vicente Garcia (Banesto) @ 2hr 1min 46sec
• Fabrice Gougot (Casino) @ 2hr 2min 5sec
• Christophe Mengin (FDJ) @ 2hr 4min 3sec
• Rik Verbrugghe (Lotto) @ 2hr 4min 31sec
• Marc Lotz (Rabobank) @ 2hr 8min 8sec
• Steffen Wesemann (Telekom) @ 2hr 9min 22sec
• Stéphane Goubert (Polti) @ 2hr 10min 58sec
• José Luis Rebollo (ONCE) @ 2hr 12min 57sec
• Prudencio Indurain (Vitalicio Seguros) @ 2hr 14min 15sec
• Laurent Brochard (Festina) @ 2hr 14min 42sec
• George Hincapie (US Postal) @ 2hr 16min 35sec
• Chirstophe Rinero (Cofidis) @ 2hr 16min 35sec
• Jörg Jaksche (Telekom) @ 2hr 16min 44sec
• Giampaolo Mondini (Cantina Tollo) @ 2hr 17min 34sec
• Gilles Maignan (Casino) @ 2hr 18min 2sec
• Cédriv Vasseur (Credit Agricole) @ 2hr 18min 23sec
• Maarten Den Bakker (Rabobank) @ 2hr 19min 3sec
• Christian Vande Velde (US Postal) @ 2hr 23min 58sec
• Javier Otxoa (Kelme) @ 2hr 24min 14sec
• Riccardo Forconi (Mercatone Uno) @ 2hr 25min 2sec
• Laurent Lefèvre (Festina) @ 2hr 25min 8sec
• Erik Zabel (Telekom) @ 2hr 26min 1sec
• Dominique Rault (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 2hr 27min 17sec
• Pascal Chanteur (Casino) @ 2hr 28min 0sec
• Elio Aggiano (Vitalicio Seguros) @ 2hr 28min 33sec
• Alexei Sivakov (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 2hr 29min 40sec
• Stuart O'Grady (Credit Agricole) @ 2hr 30min 7sec
• Massimo Giunti (Cantina Tollo) @ 2hr 30min 25sec
• Thierry Gouvenou (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 2hr 32min 11sec
• Patrick Jonker (Rabobank) @ 2hr 32min 20sec
• David Navas (Banesto) @ 2hr 33min 31sec
• Fabio Sacchi (Polti) @ 2hr 33min 39sec
• Laurent Desbiens (Cofidis) @ 2hr 34min 1sec
• José Angel Vidal (Kelme) @ 2hr 34min 22sec
• Jaime Hernández (Festina) @ 2hr 36min 4sec
• Davide Bramati (Mapei) @ 2hr 36min 15sec
• Tom Steels (Mapei) @ 2hr 36min 28sec
• Anthony Morin (FDJ) @ 2hr 36min 37sec
• Frédéric Guesdon (FDJ) @ 2hr 37min 27sec
• Erik Dekker (Rabobank) @ 2hr 38min 5sec
• Fabien De Waele (Lotto) @ 2hr 39min 21sec
• Beat Zberg (Rabobank) @ 2hr 39min 29sec
• Kai Hundertmarck (Telekom) @ 2hr 39min 32sec
• Ludovic Auger (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 2hr 39min 38sec
• Peter Wuyts (Lotto) @ 2hr 39min 50sec
• Marco Pinotti (Lampre) @ 2hr 40min 0sec
• Silvio Martinello (Polti) @ 2hr 40min 14sec
• Christophe Capelle (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 2hr 45min 17sec
• Lars Michaelsen (FDJ) @ 2hr 46min 20sec
• Claude Lemour (Cofidis) @ 2hr 46min 26sec
• Rolf Huser (Festina) @ 2hr 47min 27sec
• Chris Boardman (Credit Agricole) @ 2hr 47min 48sec
• Mirko Crepaldi (Polti) @ 2hr 49min 14sec
• Henk Vogels (Credit Agricole) @ 2hr 49min 17sec
• Robbie McEwen (Rabobank) @ 2hr 49min 23sec
• Sébastien Hinault (Credit Agricole) @ 2hr 51min 3sec
• Sergio Barbero (Mercatone Uno) @ 2hr 51min 9sec
• Gabriele Colombo (Cantina Tollo) @ 2hr 51min 43sec
• Carlos de la Cruz (Big Mat-Auber 93) @ 2hr 51min 48sec
• Rossano Brasi (Polti) @ 2hr 52min 1sec
• Thierry Marichal (Lotto) @ 2hr 54min 6sec
• Juan José de Los Angeles (Kelme) @ 2hr 54min 40sec
• Sebastien Demarbaix (lotto) @ 2hr 58min 32sec
• Marcus Lungqvist (Catina Tollo) @ 3hr 0min 9sec
• Anthony Langella (Credit Agricole) @ 3hr 2min 20sec
• Bart Leysen (Mapei) @ 3hr 3min 11sec
• Massimiliano Napolitano (Mercatone Uno) @ 3hr 5min 9sec
• Pedro Horillo (Vitalicio Seguros) @ 3hr 5min 31sec
• Jan Schaffrath (Telekom) @ 3hr 5min 41sec
• Luca Mazzanti (Cantina Tollo) @ 3hr 6min 28sec
• Alessandro Baronti (Cantina Tollo) @ 3hr 7min 7sec
• Thierry Loder (Cofidis) @ 3hr 11min 55sec
• Pascal Deramé (US Postal) @ 3hr 14min 19sec
• Jacky Durand (lotto) @ 3hr 19min 9sec
• Richard Virenque (Polti): 279 points
• Alberto Elli (Telekom): 226
• Mariano Piccoli (Lampre): 205
• Fernando Escartin (Kelme): 194
• Lance Armstrong (US Postal): 193
• Alex Zülle (Banesto): 152
• José Luis Arrieta (Banesto): 141
• Laurent Dufaux (Saeco): 141
• Andrea Peron (ONCE): 138
• Kurt Van De Wouwer (Lotto): 117
• Erik Zabel (Telekom): 323 points
• Stuart O'Grady (Credit Agricole): 275
• Christophe Capelle (Big Mat-Auber 93): 196
• Tom Steels (Mapei): 188
• François Simon (Credit Agricole): 186
• George Hincapie (US Postal): 166
• Robbie McEwen (Rabobank): 166
• Giampaolo Mondini (Cantina Tollo): 141
• Christophe Moreau (Festina): 140
• Silvio Martinello (Polti): 130
• Benoît Salmon (Casino) 92hr 1min 15sec
• Mario Aerts (Lotto) @ 10min 22sec
• Francisco Tomas García (Vitalicio Seguros) @ 16min32sec
• Francisco Mancebo (Banesto) @ 21min 32sec
• Luis Perez (ONCE) @ 23min 54sec
• Banesto: 275hr 5min 21sec
• ONCE @ 8min 16sec
• Festina @ 16min 13sec
• Kelme @ 23min 48sec
• Mapei @ 24min 13sec
• Telekom @ 41min 0sec
• Vitalicio Seguros @ 42min 44sec
• US Postal @ 57min 13sec
• Cofidis @ 58min 2sec
• Lotto @ 1hr 9min 2sec

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Stage results with running GC:

Prologue , Saturday, July 3, Puy de Fou 6.8 km Individual Time Trial

Stage 1 : Sunday, July 4, Montaigu - Challans. 209 km. 42.12 km/hr

General Classification after Stage 1:

Stage 2: Monday, July 5, Challans - St. Nazaire. 146 km. 46.822 km/hr

General Classification after Stage 2

Stage 3 : Tuesday, July 6, Nantes - Laval 194 km. 43.31 km/hr

General Classification after Stage 3

Stage 4 , Wednesday, July 7, Laval - Blois, 194.5 km. 50.355 km/hr

Fastest stage to date in Tour history

General Classification after Stage 4

Stage 5 : Thursday, July 8, Thursday, Bonneval - Amiens. 228 km

General Classification after Stage 5

Stage 6 : Friday, July 9, Amiens - Maubeuge, 169 km

General Classification after Stage 6

Stage 7 : Saturday, July 10, Avesnes sur Helpe - Thionville, 223 km

General Classification after Stage 7

Stage 8 : Sunday, July 11, Metz 56.5 km Individual Time Trial 49.417 km/hr

Bobby Julich crashes at about km 30 and is forced to retire

General Classification after Stage 8

Stage 9 : Tuesday, July 13, Le Grand Bornand - Sestrieres, 213.5 km.

General Classification after Stage 9

Stage 10 : Wednesday, July 14, Sestrieres - L'Alpe d'Huez. 220.5 km 32.868 km/hr

General Classification after Stage 10

Stage 11 : Thursday, July 15, Bourg d'Oisans - St. Etienne. 198.5 km

General Classification after Stage 11

Stage 12 : Friday, July 16, St. Galmier - St. Flour, 201.5 km

General Classification after Stage 12

Stage 13 : Saturday, July 17, St. Flour - Albi. 236.5 Km. 1999's longest stage.

General Classification after Stage 13

Stage 14 : Sunday, July 18, Castres - St. Gaudens, 199 km

GC after Stage 14:

• Lance Armstrong: 67hr 23min 28sec
• Abraham Olano @ 7min 44sec
• Alex Zulle @ 7min 47sec
• Laurent Dufaux @ 8min 7sec
• Fernando Escartin @ 8min 53sec
• Stephane Heulot @ 9min 10sec
• Richard Virenque @ 10min 3sec
• Pavel Tonkov @ 10min 18sec
• Daniele Nardello @ 10min 58sec
• Angel Casero @ 11min 13sec

Stage 15 : Tuesday, July 20, St. Gaudens - Piau Engaly, 173 km.

General Classification after Stage 15. 40.007 km/hr average speed for the Tour so far

Stage 16 : Wednesday, July 21, Lannemezan - Pau 192 km

General Classification after Stage 16.

Stage 17 : Thursday, July 22, Mourenx - Bordeaux 199 km.

General Classification after Stage 17. 3,301.8 km ridden so far @ 40.058 km/hr average speed

Stage 18 : Friday, July 23. Jonzac - Futuroscope. Shortened to 184.7 km.

GC after Stage 18:

• Lance Armstrong: 86hr 46min 20sec
• Fernando Escartin @ 6min 15sec
• Alex Zulle @ 7min 28sec
• Laurent Dufaux @ 10min 30sec
• Richard Virenque @ 11min 40sec
• Daniele Nardello @ 13min 19sec
• Angel Casero @ 13min 34sec
• Abraham Olano @ 14min 29sec
• Wladimir Belli @ 15min 14sec
• Kurt Van de Wouwer @ 18min 27sec

Stage19 : Saturday, July 24, Futuroscope 57 km individual time trial. Armstrong averaged 50.085 km/hr

General Classification after Stage 19

Stage 20 : Sunday, July 25, Arpajon - Paris/Champs Elysées, 143.5 km

Complete Final General Classification after Stage 20.

The Story of the 1999 Tour de France:

This excerpt is from "The Story of the Tour de France", Volume 2. If you enjoy it we hope you will consider purchasing the book, either print, Kindle eBook or audiobook. The Amazon link here will the purchase easy.

Over the winter more allegations of drug use surfaced. Some could not be confirmed, others were obvious on their face. The conclusion one had to come to after digesting the accumulation of horrible information is that the situation was at least as bad or worse than the 1998 Tour led one to believe. And then the situation managed to deteriorate. After stage 5 in the 1999 Giro, the Italian National Sports Council (CONI) subjected 16 riders from 3 different teams to a new comprehensive blood and urine test. Two of the riders tested positive for dope but no sanctions were applied. The riders, as they have always been since the start of testing, were incensed. Marco Pantani, Oscar Camenzind, Laurent Jalabert and Mario Cipollini held a press conference and declared that if the national sports organization intruded any further upon the testing regimen which had heretofore been the responsibility of the UCI, they would stop racing. Of that group of 4, Pantani was not the only rider who would have drug problems. In 2004 Camenzind retired after receiving a 2-year suspension for EPO.

Before the start of the penultimate stage of the 1999 Giro, Marco Pantani was awakened so that a blood test could be administered. His hematocrit of 52 percent resulted in his being ejected from the Giro after he had won 4 stages and was leading in the General Classification. The cycling world was stunned. Pantani's squalificato seemed to affect many racing fans far more deeply than the Festina scandal, probably because of Pantani's powerfully heroic image. He had triumphed over a horrible accident and saved the Tour during its greatest crises. Partisans of Pantani made accusations of a conspiracy. In fact, the riders have long known how to foil the hematocrit test. When they knew they would be subjected to a test they would take saline injections and aspirin and in no time the rider's hematocrit was within the legal limit. Some teams even provided the riders with small centrifuges so that they could "manage" their red blood cell concentration. By waking Pantani up to take the test he wasn't able to take measures to bring his hematocrit down. He was a goner. Pantani was too devastated by the disqualification to consider riding the Tour.

In mid-June the Tour announced that the TVM team along with several individuals including ONCE team manager Manolo Saiz and rider Richard Virenque would not be allowed to participate in the Tour. Missing from the list of banned riders were the Festina and Mercatone Uno teams and Marco Pantani. Later on the UCI overruled the Tour organization and insisted that the Tour allow Virenque and Saiz to participate. And the doping in pro racing continued with 4 riders tossed from the Tour of Switzerland for high hematocrits.

In June Ullrich announced that he had injured his knee in the Tour of Germany and would not be able to compete in the Tour. With Pantani and Ullrich out, the press cast about for a favorite. At the top of a lot of lists were Pavel Tonkov (1996 Giro winner), Alex Zülle, Fernando Escartin and Ivan Gotti (1997 and 1999 Giro winner).

And there was another rider to consider. He had withdrawn from the 1996 Tour and could not ride the 1997 and 1998 editions as he endured surgery and chemotherapy to cure what should have been a life-ending case of testicular cancer. In the fall of 1997 he announced the resumption of his professional cycling career. That return was bumpy with intermittent success and withdrawals. But by mid 1998 he had clearly returned to the top ranks of professional cycling with a win in the Tour of Luxembourg, fourth in the Vuelta and fourth in the World Time Trial Championships. In 1999 he won the prologue of the Dauphiné Libéré, and narrowly lost a 2-up sprint to Michael Boogerd in the Amstel Gold Race. Lance Armstrong had returned. But he returned a different athlete. The man who had been a strong, punchy 175-pound powerhouse and who was one of the youngest-ever World Road Champions was now a gaunt, lean stage racer. He now trained and raced with a deliberate focus that turned out to be his most powerful weapon against his usual challenger, Jan Ullrich.

When Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer, he had just inked a $2.5-million, 2-year contract with the French team Cofidis. When Armstrong told Cofidis he was ready to return to racing they responded by firing him. Now Cofidis boss François Migraine didn't quite see it that way. He said that he was told Armstrong had testicular cancer two weeks after the Cofidis contract was signed. He said he promised to support Armstrong even if he couldn't fulfill the contract. Saying that he did not hear much from Armstrong, he sent Alain Bondue to the U.S. to find out what was happening exactly and to renegotiate the contract.

It is Bondue's renegotiating of the contract while Armstrong was so sick that infuriated the rider.

Migraine says that Cofidis did end up paying Armstrong approximately $600,000 to settle the contract and had reached a tentative agreement for the 1998 season before Armstrong signed for US Postal.

After a hard search for a new team Armstrong signed with the American US Postal squad and it was in their blue outfit that he was riding the Tour. While Armstrong was not on many possible Tour winner lists, Miguel Indurain had said that he thought Armstrong had a serious chance of winning the Tour.

With Pantani, Ullrich and Riis not starting the Tour, 1999 was one of those rare years in which there were no former Tour winners. The 1999 Tour started in the Loire Valley town of Le-Puy-de-Fou and went clockwise (Alps first) up to northeastern France and then a big transfer to begin the Alps on stage 9. After the Alps came the Massif Central, the Pyrenees and then the final time trial on the penultimate stage.

Armstrong showed that he had mastered the first component of a successful Tour rider, time trialing, winning the 6.8-kilometer prologue and beating Zülle by 7 seconds. Armstrong said that this day was doubly sweet, that he got more than the pleasure of the Yellow Jersey. After completing his ride and learning that he was the winner, he went by the Cofidis team who were there with the team managers. These were the managers who had come to his hospital bed when he was in the worst throes of chemotherapy and told him that they needed to re-do his contract. "That was for you," he told them.

The Tour was upended on the second stage. Starting at Challans, southeast of Nantes, the riders were sent to the island of Noirmoutier before returning to the mainland and a finish in St. Nazaire. The riders had to negotiate the Passage du Gois, a narrow 4-kilometer long road that is submerged except at low tide. Even when exposed, it is a dangerous, slippery road. Worse, there was a hard crosswind. Making the situation even more dire, the entire peloton reached the constricted road intact. Armstrong, Olano, Escartin, Tonkov, Virenque and Julich were in the front of the pack when it made the treacherous crossing and emerged unscathed. But behind them was chaos. A crash took down Zülle, Gotti and Michael Boogerd who were then badly delayed in the mess. The teams that had managed to get clear of the passage without damage went to the front of the lead group and pulled hard in order to derive the maximum benefit. The Zülle group eventually came in 6 minutes, 3 seconds after Tom Steels led in the front lucky 70 riders. At one terrible, early blow, Zülle, a wonderfully talented but accident-prone rider, was out of contention. With the time bonuses the sprinters were earning, Estonian sprinter Jaan Kirsipuu was now the leader with Armstrong only 14 seconds back in second place.

Stage 4 was notable because tailwinds allowed the riders to set a new record for the fastest road stage, 50.356 kilometers per hour, beating the 1993 record held by Johan Bruyneel.

While there were several fine sprinters in the 1999 Tour, the finest, far and away, was Tuscan Mario Cipollini. By the end of stage 7 he had done what no postwar rider had done, win 4 stages in a row. One had to go back to the 1930 Tour when Charles Pélissier was the reigning speed demon to find the last 4-time consecutive stage winner. As they raced over the flatter roads of Northern France, the fast finishers enjoyed the time in the Tour when they could strut their stuff. The next day, in Metz, was a 56.5-kilometer individual time trial. Then the mountains had to be conquered. The General Classification men would come out of hiding after a period where their primary job had been to avoid trouble.

During the time trial, misfortune struck 2 important riders. Bobby Julich crashed and had to abandon. Abraham Olano crashed and lost enough time that the man who started after him, Armstrong, caught and passed him. Armstrong's victory in the stage was substantial. Zülle, who came in second, could only come within 57 seconds of him. The new General Classification with a rest day to be followed by the first Alpine stage:

The remaining big question was whether Armstrong could climb with men like Zülle, Escartin and Virenque. Before he came down with cancer, he couldn't. The ninth stage would certainly settle the question with the Tamié, Télégraphe, Galibier, Montgenèvre and a hilltop finish at Sestriere on the day's menu. It was a cold, wet day with hail on the descent of the Montgenèvre. Virenque got away on the Galibier and was the first over the Montgenèvre but couldn't hold his lead. On the descent of the Montgenèvre Escartin and Gotti took wild chances and managed to create a gap of about 30 seconds. On the final climb a small group of 5 of the best including Armstrong and Zülle were together. With less than 7 kilometers to go Armstrong jumped away. He caught and passed Escartin and then went right on by a dumbfounded Gotti. With the encouragement of Bruyneel coming over his earphone Armstrong rode ever harder and further from his chasers. The only credible threat coming up the road was from Zülle, but he couldn't do it. Armstrong crossed the line alone, 31 seconds ahead of Zülle and 2½ minutes ahead of Virenque.

The new General Classification:

Armstrong was now in the ideal position. He had a healthy lead, one so large that he could ride economically, just keeping his dangermen in check. He didn't have to waste energy on offensive exploits. In fact, he had been in control since the crash in stage 2 but insecurity about Olano's climbing abilities had prevented US Postal from relaxing. Armstrong adopted exactly that conservative strategy for the next day's stage to the top of L'Alpe d'Huez. With over 6 minutes in hand he planned to avoid disaster and let the others try to take the race from him. At the base of the Alpe the fast pace caused Olano to drop off. Part way up the climb Italian Giuseppe Guerini took flight with Tonkov hot on his tail. Tonkov couldn't close the gap but he was just dangerous enough that Armstrong went after him. Near the top a photographer got right in Guerini's way and the 2 went down together. Guerini jumped back on his bike and was able to regain his momentum and stayed away for a terrific victory with Tonkov only 21 seconds back. The Armstrong/Zülle group came within 4 seconds of Tonkov at the end. The net result for the day with Olano's 2-minute time loss was that Armstrong now had a lead of 7 minutes, 42 seconds over the still second placed Spaniard. Zülle was now third, 5 seconds behind Olano.

Now the Tour went across the Massif Central. While this terrain didn't have the dramatic climbs of the Alps and the Pyrenees, the sawtooth stage profiles were demanding. An escape could do damage if the leaders' teams weren't alert and willing to work hard. Stage 12 was a classic stage of this sort with 6 climbs rated category 2 and 3; stage 13 had 7 rated climbs. While these days were characterized by constant attacks and high temperatures, the top of the standings didn't change.

Before the start of the 2 Pyrenean stages the Tour took its second rest day. There were now 3 stages left that could affect the Tour's outcome: the 2 remaining days in the mountains and the 57-kilometer time trial. If the pure climbers wanted to take back time from Armstrong, time was running out.

Stage 15 had 6 big mountains: the Ares, Menté, Portillon, Peyresourde, Val Louron, and a hilltop finish at Piau-Engaly. From the first climb the non-stop attacks started. Virenque, Laurent Brochard and others shattered the peloton. In the now-reduced pack, US Postal kept a high but not hot pace since most of the breakaways were not threats to the leadership. But when Fernando Escartin took off on the Portillon, Armstrong himself closed the gap. Escartin went again on the Peyresourde and began to hook up with riders who had escaped earlier. Escartin dropped all the other riders and soloed in for the win. Virenque and Zülle, who had been able to withstand Armstrong's attempts to drop them, managed to beat the Yellow Jersey to the finish by 9 seconds. For Armstrong and his team those final kilometers of that stage represented a rare episode of support failure. Armstrong bonked. He ran out of food and couldn't keep up with the others. Again Olano had been the main casualty, this day coming in 7 minutes after Escartin and losing his second place in the standings.

That afternoon rumors became more solid when the French paper Le Monde announced that a drug test had shown Armstrong to be using a corticosteroid. The cycling press could not believe that Armstrong could emerge from cancer and be the extraordinary stage racer he had become, and delightedly fanned the rumors. It turned out to be the skin cream Armstrong had been using to fight saddle sores. It contained minute traces of cortisone but Armstrong had been cleared by the Tour authorities to use the medicine.

Stage 16 would be tough with the Aspin, Tourmalet, Soulor and the Aubisque. With a descent into Pau after the final climb, this stage would not give the pure climbers the chance to get real time if Armstrong should falter. While there was action off the front, Armstrong stayed focused on his rivals. On the Tourmalet, a hard acceleration by Postal rider Kevin Livingston caused Virenque to lose contact. The main worries were Escartin and Zülle who were both indefatigable and strong. At the top of the Tourmalet Escartin attacked and took Zülle and Armstrong with him. Escartin tried again on the Soulor and again Armstrong stayed with him. In the final drive to Pau Armstrong let the others go, not needing to fight for a stage win or further tire himself. After the Pyrenees the General Classification stood thus:

Armstrong chose to ride the stage 19 time trial to win, rather than playing it safe and riding carefully. But he beat Zülle by only 9 seconds. The main loser of the day was Escartin, who not unexpectedly, lost gobs of time and his second place. The Tour was now Armstrong's. Like the 1971 Tour (when Ocaña crashed out while in Yellow), this is a Tour that invites speculation. What if Zülle had not crashed in the Passage du Gois and lost 6 minutes? Now I understand that all the riders had to ride the same roads, it was the same for everyone and Armstrong was the heads-up savvy rider who made sure he was in the front of the peloton on that dangerous road. But if Zülle, who did crash a lot, had not lost that time, then perhaps Armstrong would not have had the luxury of a defensive ride. It would surely have been a closer Tour that might have gone another way.

Armstrong joined an elite group (Merckx, Hinault and Indurain) when he won all of the 1999 Tour's time trials. That French cycling was still at a low ebb was made clear. The highest placed Frenchman was Virenque at eighth place, 17 minutes, 28 seconds behind Armstrong. For the first time since 1926, in the era of Belgian Tour hegemony, no Frenchman had won a stage. In 1926 the highest placed French rider came in eighth as well.

Final 1999 Tour de France General Classification:

Climbers' Competition:

Points Competition:

© McGann Publishing

Sepp Kuss Goes for the Repeat at the Vuelta a España—the Final Grand Tour of the Season

The American is the undisputed leader for his team this year. Can lightning strike twice?

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The Route for the 2024 Vuelta a España

How to watch the 2024 vuelta a españa, what happened last year, riders to watch at the 2024 vuelta a españa.

The season’s final grand tour, the Vuelta a España is always a bit of a “last-chance saloon” as riders often use the three-week Spanish stage race to try and redeem themselves for missed opportunities earlier in the season, build form for late-season races, and in some cases, earn contracts for the next year and beyond.

• Date : August 17th to September 8th
• Distance : 3,261km (2,022mi)
• Start location : Lisbon
• Finish location : Madrid

Stuck in the shadow of May’s Giro d’Italia and July’s Tour de France, we love how the Vuelta’s organizers always go to great lengths to design a spectacular course—usually one with lots and lots of climbs. In fact, there are so many climbing stages in this year’s race (eighteen, in fact) that the organizers had to create sub-categories just to describe them all: “hilly stages,” “hilly stages with uphill finishes,” “medium mountain stages,” and “mountain stages.” If you’re a sprinter, the Vuelta isn’t the race for you.

Starting a week earlier than it often does, this year’s begins on Saturday with Stage 1, a short time trial beginning in Lisbon, the first of three stages in Portugal. In all, this year’s Vuelta covers 3,261km (2,022mi) over 21 stages, including two individual time trials, ten stages with uphill or summit finishes (that’s not a typo), and a deep list of contenders that includes last year’s champion, the first American to win a grand tour in ten years.

Here’s everything you need to know:

Dates for the 2024 Vuelta a España

Saturday, August 17th to Sunday, September 8th

The 2024 Vuelta a España begins on Saturday in Lisbon, Portugal with a flat, 12km individual time trial to determine the first rider to pull on the red jersey as the leader of the Vuelta’s General Classification. The race stays in Portugal for the next two days with a stage for the puncheurs (Stage 2, ending in Ourém) and a stage that might be for the sprinters (Stage 3, ending in Castelo Branco).

Stage 4 brings the Vuelta back into Spain and ends with this year’s first summit finish, on the Category 1 climb to Pico Villuercas. Stage 5 brings the race south for a possible field sprint in Sevilla, before Stage 6 heads back into the hills with a jagged stage that starts inside a department store (we’re not kidding) and ends atop the Category 3 climb to Yunquera.

Stage 7 looks like another perfect day for a breakaway thanks to a rolling stage profile and a steep climb about 25km from the finish in Córdoba, a town in the southern region of Andalusia. Another breakaway could stay away on Stage 8, which finishes atop the Category 3 climb to Cazorla.

The first week ends on Sunday with Stage 9, a monster mountain stage containing three Category 1 climbs in the Sierra Nevada mountains before a stage finish down in Granada. The riders will be happy to see the Vuelta’s first Rest Day on Monday–but only after they make a long transfer to northern Spain.

The second week begins with Stage 10, another mountain stage–this one featuring four categorized climbs through the northern region of Galicia before a finish along the Atlantic coast in Baiona. Stage 11 is a tricky one. Starting and ending on a newly built technological campus in Padron, the stage features a challenging circuit that takes the riders over a Category 2 climb four times and the last ascent comes less than 10km from the finish of the stage.

The climbing continues as the second week concludes with four more mountain stages, three of which end with summit finishes. Stage 12 ends atop the Category 1 climb to the Estación de Montaña Manzaneda; Stage 13 ends on a new climb–the super-steep, Category 1 Puerto de Ancares; and Stage 14 doesn’t end with a climb, but it might as well: the finish in Villablino comes soon after the riders summit the Category 1 Puerto de Leitariegos.

But the final stage of the Vuelta’s second week–Stage 15–is the toughest of them all: a 142km stage through Asturias with a finish on the “Beyond Category” ascent to Ciutu Negru, a monster of a climb with pitches that hit 23%. It’s a ferocious end to a week already jammed with elevation gain. By the end of it, there might only be two or three riders still in contention to win the red jersey.

Coming out of the Vuelta’s second Rest Day, Stage 16 opens the third week just as Stage 15 ended the second: with a summit finish on a “Beyond Category” climb, this time on the climb to Lagos de Covadonga, an Asturian summit that’s making its 23rd Vuelta appearance this year. If any sprinters have made it to Stage 17, they’re in for a treat: a relatively “flat” stage that tackles two Category 2 climbs early in the day but has a flat finale into Santander in what will surely be their last chance to win a stage in this year’s race.

Stage 18 looks like a great day for a breakaway, with a punchy ride through the Basque Country that looks like a perfect chance for riders looking to test their form for the world championship road race in late-September. Stage 19 ends with another summit finish–on the Category 1 Alto de Moncalvillo–and by this point in the race a breakaway filled with out-of-contention climbers could be given the freedom it needs to win the stage while the GC contenders save themselves for the final climb–and the final weekend.

And they’ll need it, as the Vuelta’s final weekend begins with Stage 20, a stage traditionally reserved for the Vuelta’s final mountain showdown. This year’s penultimate stage is no different, with seven categorized climbs jammed into a 172km stage and a summit finish on the Category 1 Picón Blanco, a steep climb that’s making its second Vuelta appearance this year. And just in case Stage 20 doesn’t determine the winner of the 2024 Vuelta a España, Stage 21’s 22km individual time trial into Madrid certainly will.

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American Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) won the 2023 Vuelta a España, capping off a historic season in which Jumbo-Visma won all three of cycling’s grand tours. Even more incredible, Kuss was joined on the final podium by two of his teammates: Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard finished second overall, and Slovenia’s Primož Roglič finished third. In winning the race, Kuss became the first American to win a grand tour since Chris Horner won the Vuelta in 2013.

Kuss began expecting to support Vingegaard and Roglič, but he put himself in contention after winning Stage 6 from a breakaway that finished around 3 minutes ahead of the race’s main GC contenders. He took the red jersey two days later and then defended it all the way to Madrid.

But it wasn’t an easy victory, mainly due to the fact that Vingegaard and Roglič (who at times seemed to be racing against each other) had a hard time relinquishing leadership of the team to the American. Luckily, a team meeting in the third week seemed to set things straight, and Vingegaard and Roglič spent the rest of the race protecting Kuss’s advantage.

Other winners included Australia’s Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who won three stages and the Points competition; Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), who won three stages and the Vuelta’s King of the Mountains competition; and Spain’s Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), who finished fourth overall and was the Vuelta’s Best Young Rider. Jumbo-Visma was the Vuelta’s best overall team, which is what happens when a team’s riders finish 1-2-3 on the GC.

Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Kuss had a slow start to the season and then tested positive for COVID-19 just before the Tour de France–which forced him to skip the French grand tour. The time off must have been just what the doctor ordered though, because the American won the queen stage and the General Classification at last week’s Vuelta a Burgos, a race many riders often use as a pre-Vuelta dress rehearsal. While his win in last year’s race was a bit of a surprise, the 29–year-old looks ready to defend his title–even if being the defending champion means he won’t be given the same amount of freedom early in the race as he was given last year as a domestique.

Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)

Soon after last year’s Vuelta, it was announced that Roglič was transferring to the German team in the hopes of finally winning the Tour de France, the only grand tour still missing from his palmares. Unfortunately, this year’s Tour didn’t go well for the three-time Vuelta champion: he crashed near the end of Stage 12 and was unable to start Stage 13. After the Tour, the 34-year-old revealed that he had broken a bone in his lower back, an injury that could keep him out of the race. But if he starts, he’s still a threat to at least be a disrupter, perhaps winning a stage or two while building some form for one-day races later in the season.

João Almeida and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates)

Almedia and Yates were Tadej Pogačar’s two strongest lieutenants at the Tour de France in July, finishing fourth and sixth overall. Now they get a chance to be co-leaders at the Vuelta, where the team hopes one or both of them will at worst finish on the podium. They’re fairly similar riders: Almeida has scored six top-10 grand tour finishes and Yates has scored seven–and they’ve each finished third in a grand tour once in their careers. Assuming they can manage their shared aspirations, they should provide the strongest one-two punch of any team in the race.

Thymen Arensman and Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers)

INEOS is sending its best GC riders to the Vuelta: Arensman, who finished sixth at the Giro d’Italia; and Rodríguez, who was seventh at the Tour de France. Both riders are hoping to challenge for a podium spot at the Spanish grand tour, which would be an important result for a team that’s been searching for its next bona fide grand tour contender for the past few seasons.

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost)

After crashing out of the Tour de Suisse in June, Carapaz went to the Tour de France without the form he needed to challenge for a high GC finish. But he shifted his goals and still put in a fantastic performance, wearing the yellow jersey for a day, winning a stage, and taking home the polka dot jersey as the Tour’s King of the Mountains. Now he heads to the Vuelta where–with a full Tour in his legs–he’s likely shooting for a podium finish.

Other riders to watch include Colombia’s Daniel Martínez (BORA-hansgrohe), the runner-up at May’s Giro d’Italia; Australia’s Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), who took fourth at the Giro; Italy’s Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), the Giro’s Best Young Rider and fifth-place overall finisher; Denmark’s Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), a promising stage racer who’s making his 2024 grand tour debut; and two Spaniards: Enric Mas (Movistar), a two-time Vuelta runner-up; and Mikel Landa (Soudal-Quick Step), who took fifth at last year’s Vuelta and fifth at the recent Tour de France.

And last but not least, three Americans are expected to join Kuss on the starting line in Lisbon: Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), who’s a favorite to win the opening time trial and take the first red jersey; Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech), who scored an impressive fifth-place finish at the Tour de Suisse; and Riley Sheehan, who’s making his grand tour debut at the Vuelta.

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Sprint | Aiton

Sprint | brian, finishline points, mountain sprint | col du marais, mountain sprint | col de tami, mountain sprint | col du t, mountain sprint | col du galibier, mountain sprint | col de montgen, mountain sprint | sestriere, team day classification, race information.

• Date: 13 July 1999
• Start time: -
• Avg. speed winner: 36.116 km/h
• Race category: ME - Men Elite
• Distance: 215 km
• Points scale: GT.A.Stage
• Parcours type:
• ProfileScore: 464
• Vertical meters: 5500
• Departure: Le Grand Bornand
• Arrival: Sestriere
• Race ranking: n/a
• Startlist quality score: 1255
• Won how: 6.5 km solo
• Avg. temperature:

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