[2] The teams with Italian and Spanish sponsors were focussed on the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, and thought their cyclists were not able to compete in two grand tours in one year.

[2] The teams entering the race were:[4] The three most important favourites for the victory were Bernard Hinault, Joop Zoetemelk and Hennie Kuiper.

[6] 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.

Pevenage claimed the stage victory with Bazzo taking second and while Bertin took third he was the highest placed of the three and took over the lead in the general classification.

[5] Bernard Hinault was aiming to win his third straight Tour de France and in the ITT he looked to be well on his way dominating the rest of the field.

Of the 122 riders remaining in the main field only six of them were able to come within 2:00 of Hinault and nobody was able to finish within a minute of the defending champ.

Stage 5 was run in terrible weather, but the aggressive Hinault was looking to distance himself from the competition and went on the offensive together with Kuiper.

[5][16] Going into Stage 6 Hinault was within four minutes of Pevenage in the general classification and built a lead of more than 3:00 on Kuiper, nearly 4:00 on Zoetemelk and more than 5:00 on Raymond Martin and Joaquim Agostinho.

The stage was won by Jean-Louis Gauthier by a full second over the rest of the field with no major changes in the overall classification.

During this TTT Hinault's knee problems were showing, as he could not do his part of the workload, although his Renault team still managed a respectable 4th place behind Raleigh, Peugeot and Ijsboerke.

[5] ‘Panzer Group Post’ as they were known because of their Directeur Sportif Peter Post, attacked relentlessly in an effort to win stages and contain any attacks made by Hinault to put Zoetemelk in a position where he could defeat Hinault in the upcoming high mountain stages.

Stage 11 was a time trial prior to going into the high mountains of the Pyrenees and if Hinault wanted to match the likes of Louison Bobet, Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx by winning his third Tour de France in a row he would have to perform well.

Normally, Hinault was the better time trialist, so Zoetemelk's stage victory made him confident that he had the chance to win the Tour.

[5][16] In Stage 13, Zoetemelk rode in his notoriously conservative style, allowing Raymond Martin to escape, as he was a distant threat in the general classification, but he kept Kuiper close, who was now his main rival for the overall victory.

Not only this but during this stage he distinguished himself as the strongest rider on a very talented Miko–Mercier team, who also had Christian Seznec and Sven-Åke Nilsson as GC contenders and for the previous several years also had Zoetemelk, who remained the overall leader, with Kuiper in 2nd place at 1:10 behind him.

[16] Helped by the Panzer Group, he was able to stay close to his competitors and was in good position for the final climb.

Mariano Martinez survived his breakaway attempt and won the stage as Zoetemelk was able to drop 2nd place Kuiper, who came partially unhinged losing almost 1:30.

3rd place Raymond Martin was able to leave Zoetemelk behind but it was near the end of the stage and by this point it was too little too late as he was only able to take 0:15 back.

With the Alps now finished the last obstacle in the way of Zoetemelk winning his first Tour de France was the time trial in Stage 20.

[citation needed] The other Team Competition was won by Miko–Mercier–Vivagel and on the final podiums Johan van der Velde claimed the white jersey as the best young rider, the green jersey for the points classification went to Pevenage, the mountains classification was won by Raymond Martin who also finished on the podium in 3rd place overall with Hennie Kuiper standing in 2nd and Joop Zoetemelk wearing the yellow jersey atop the podium as winner of the general classification in the 1980 Tour de France.

Shortly before the start of the Tour, it was announced that Dietrich Thurau had tested positive in his national championship.

As the director, Goddet was well-informed about drug tests, and many journalists speculated that his comments meant that Zoetemelk's A-sample had returned positive.

[23] In the 1979 Tour de France, Gerhard Schönbacher and Philippe Tesnière had both been trying to finish last, which had received attention from the press.

The Tour organisation wanted to the press to focus on the winners, so they added the rule that after the 14th to 20th stage, the last-ranked cyclist in the general classification would be removed.

[5] In the individual time trial prior to the start of the mountain stages Zoetemelk dominated Hinault to come within 21 seconds of the overall lead.