[5] The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,642 m (8,668 ft) at the summit of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 17.

Hinault won the stage and took over the race lead as Zoetemelk moved into 2nd place overall while Joaquim Agostinho, Hennie Kuiper and Sven-Åke Nilsson rounded out the top 5.

Hinault edged Rudy Pevenage at the line but as the strongest riders had finished together there was no change atop the General classification.

Hinault's Renault–Gitane squad finished in 5th place overall, meaning he lost time to all of these teams and his lead was now only 0:12 over Zoetemelk and 0:31 over Kuiper, who was upset at the missed opportunity following this stage as the team had chosen the wrong tires and punctured numerous times likely costing him the chance to overtake Hinault and Zoetemelk.

[2] Agostinho and his Flandria–Ça va seul team finished 6th moving him from a tie for 2nd with Zoetemelk to 4th place overall just 0:10 ahead of Ake-Nilsson.

Any of the cobbled sections included in the Tour are always treacherous, they result in numerous, if not dozens of minor and occasionally major crashes, many riders get multiple flat tires and depending on the weather it is either intolerably hot and dusty or so muddy that no rider has a clean face by the end of the stage.

Joaquim Agostinho had a disastrous day in which he lost his 5th place, fell out of the top 10 altogether and was more than 10:00 behind Hinault.

Of the 5 breakaway survivors Dierickx gained enough time to come within about 3:00 of Hinault but he was not considered a realistic threat.

[12] In stage ten Jo Maas outlasted his breakaway companions including Pol Verschuere and Ludo Peeters to take the stage win and jump into the top 10 overall as the breakaway had finished close to ten minutes ahead of the peloton.

Hinault won the stage by a narrow margin of just eight seconds over Knut Knudsen but more importantly he cut Zoetemelk's lead from 2:08 down to 1:32.

Winning the stage three seconds ahead of Rudy Pevenage, was Pierre-Raymond Villemiane who jumped from 10th place up to 6th.

Villemiane was a distant threat to the leaders and therefore not pursued by either of their teams, but Hinault did manage to take a three-second bite out of Zoetemelk's lead cutting it down to +1:29.

[13] Stage 15 was another mountain ITT, which was once again won by Bernard Hinault who put himself back into the yellow jersey.

Van Impe had a rocky start to this Tour but was slowly clawing his way back towards the top 10, even though he was always more concerned with his place within the King of the Mountains competition, not the general classification.

Meanwhile, Hinault and Zoetemelk crossed the line together some three minutes later with the two of them still separated by +2:45 and only one major mountain stage remaining.

The 2nd hilltop finish at Alpe d'Huez in stage eighteen was the final chance to gain time in the high mountains.

Zoetemelk also managed to drop Hinault near the end of the stage and cut his lead to just under two minutes prior to the final ITT.

Stage nineteen was won by Didi Thurau who outsprinted Jacobs, Demeyer and Hinault to claim the win.

The final ITT was in the city of Dijon where Hinault seemingly clinched his 2nd consecutive Tour de France victory building his lead over Zoetemelk to +3:07.

The closest rider from within the rest of the field was Agostinho, who jumped into the final podium position but was still nearly twenty-five minutes behind.

[13] With the Tour unofficially over and only the ride down the Champs-Élysées remaining stage twenty-four began with the peloton headed towards the finish line in Paris.

[16] Hinault crossed the line about a bike length ahead of Zoetemelk and about two and half minutes later the bunch sprint began for 3rd place with Dietrich Thurau edging out Jacques Bossis and Paul Sherwen.

Just as the day began with Hinault in the lead by +3:07, it ended with Bernard Hinault as Tour de France champion by +3:07 over Joop Zoetemelk, who had now finished in 2nd place in the Tour de France for a record 5th time, which in and of itself is remarkable considering the ‘Eternal Second’ Raymond Poulidor only finished 2nd three times.

[17] Tesnière had already finished last in the 1978 Tour de France, so he was aware of the publicity associated with being the lanterne rouge.

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

[31] Inoxpran, Teka, Magniflex and Splendor–Euro Soap did not finish the race with four or more cyclists, so they were not eligible for the team classification.

Magniflex and Splendor–Euro Soap did not finish the race with three or more cyclists, so they were not eligible for the team points classification.