Pollentier left the race, and the overall victory became a battle between Joop Zoetemelk and Bernard Hinault.

[1][2] The teams entering the race were: Since the 1977 Tour de France, dominant riders as Eddy Merckx, Felice Gimondi, Raymond Poulidor and Luis Ocaña had retired.

[4] The main contenders were debutant Hinault, who had won the 1978 Vuelta a España, and Joop Zoetemelk, who had already finished in second place for three times.

[4] Bernard Thévenet, the winner of the 1977 Tour de France, was out of form, and not considered a favourite.

[1] The 1978 Tour de France started on 29 June, and had two rest days, in Biarritz and Alpe d'Huez.

[5] The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,115 m (6,939 ft) at the summit of the Col du Tourmalet mountain pass on stage 11.

The winner of the previous year, Bernard Thévenet, was allowed to wear the yellow jersey, but he refused.

On the last mountain, the Pla d'Adet, Pollentier and Zoetemelk attacked, and Martinez and Hinault soon followed.

He was chased by Hinault, Zoetemelk and Kuiper, who at 4 km before the finish had closed the gap to 50 seconds.

[4] Pollentier later explained that he tried to evade the controls because he had taken amphetamines for breathing, and he did not know if it would give back a positive test.

[11] In the seventeenth stage, Kuiper, third in the general classification, crashed, broke a clavicle, and had to leave the race.

Guttierrez and Pollentier were removed from the race and banned for two months; Nazabal was set back to the last place of the stage, received ten minutes penalty time in the general classification, a fine of 1000 Swiss Francs and one month provisional suspension.

[15] The most important was the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage.

In previous years, intermediate sprints were not associated with time bonuses, but in 1978, the winner of such a sprint got 20 seconds bonification time, if he was part of an escape (defined as a group with less than 20% of the total cyclists, with a margin of 20 seconds of more on the next group).

The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and wore a white jersey with red polka dots.

[20] This was decided the same way as the general classification, but restricted to riders who were born after 1 July 1978, and were in their first or second year as professional cyclist.

[26] At the conclusion of the Tour, Paul Wellens won the overall super-combativity award, also decided by journalists.

[5] The top twelve places of the general classification awarded points that contributed towards the Super Prestige Pernod ranking,[34] an international season-long road cycling competition, with the winner seen as the best all-round rider.

[35] The 110 points accrued by Bernard Hinault moved him to the top, replacing Francesco Moser, who did not ride the Tour.