Cycling Tour de France 1996 - Part 1

The 1996 Tour de France was the 83rd edition of the 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). It was won by Danish rider Bjarne Riis.
This Tour was noted by the "fall" of favorite Miguel Indurain, ending his 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 Telekom teammate Jan Ullrich. Ullrich, only 22, really broke through in this Tour, and won the individual time trial of stage 20.
Over a decade after the race, several riders with Team Telekom 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 was 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.
UCI lawyer Philippe Verbiest stated in 2007 that the statute of limitations for removing Riis as winner of the Tour de France had 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." At the same time tour spokesman Philippe Sudres stated that: "We consider philosophically that he can no longer claim to have won." In 2007, Riis' victory was removed from the Tour de France, yet in 2008 they listed Riis as winner of Tour de France 1996, albeit with a remark about his confession.
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[@Tanxmann]

Bjarne Riis - Telekom Experience - 6 Preparation - 12 Time Trial - 10 Climbing - 13 Team - 10 TOTAL - 51 ...which was also his hematocrit value.

[@EmaVillalbaCiclista]

Mr. 60% was the nickname of Bjarne in the peloton...

[@joesmithiii6287]

His Hct was 60

[@Ettibridget]

I had so hoped for Tony Rominger get to win the race back in the 90s. Indurain may have been the master of the race, but his only language was Spanish. Rominger was fluent in French, English, German, Danish, Spanish and Italian. Truly a master of languages!

[@adrianj78]

01:07 Armstrong - look how much bigger he was then!

[@dbzfanturkiye6579]

You're right this means he trained so much and ripped off in the 1999 tdf

[@williamshultz4620]

Rod rage 20:45

[@TanzoeNay]

Interesting comment at 41:12 "Indurain getting intravenous room-service"

[@Rvdecwthug]

Interesting these days Indurain had the benefit of many time trial miles during his reign and look at the Tours of the last 10 years which have a lot fewer time trial miles and place a bigger premium on climbing. One must wonder could he have even won any of the last 10 Tours if he were racing today. He showed that he could hang with the climbers in his era, but he never won a mountain stage during his reign. Go look at the 92 Tour Route, only 2 summit finishes that were very difficult and the Pyrenees were virtually non existent that year and 120 plus KM of Time Trial miles, you never see routes like that anymore. Armstrong, LeMond, Hinault, Contador, and Froome could all Time Trial and Climb very well and could win on any route. I do not think anybody can really say that about Indurain

[@jasonstevenson110]

@@Rvdecwthug Actually at his best the climbers were hanging onto Big Mig - sometimes. I followed Indurain's reign closely. Of course he didn't have to win mountain stages because his TT was so superior and he doesn't have Armstrong's no gifts attitude. For one example of many, watch stage 10 of '93 TdF. Indurain destroyed the best climbers on the Galibier. Ground them into the dust. Only Rominger and Colombian Alvaro Mejía could hold his wheel. Read the big name climbers who couldn't hang with Big Mig in the high mountains.