On the fifteenth stage Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died after an accident on the Col de Portet d'Aspet.

[5] Shortly before the start, Le Groupement folded because their team leader Luc Leblanc was injured,[6] and because of financial problems.

His main challengers were expected to be Rominger from Mapei, Berzin from Gewiss and Zülle from ONCE.

[9] 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 15.

Chris Boardman, a big favourite for the prologue and an outsider for the overall classification, crashed during his ride, was then hit by his team's car, and had to abandon due to injury.

[14] Durand stayed in the lead until the third stage, when Laurent Jalabert overtook him due to time bonuses won in intermediate sprints.

Ivan Gotti, member of the Gewiss-team that had won the team time trial in stage three, became the new leader.

[14] Indurain was now in second place in the general classification, and after winning the time trial in the eighth stage, he became the new leader.

Pantani, already irrelevant for the overall classification, won the stage; behind him Indurain, Zülle and Riis finished together.

Jalabert was a teammate of second-placed Zülle, and he was sixth in the general classification, more than nine minutes behind Indurain.

The teammates worked together well, and when they were more than ten minutes ahead, Jalabert was the virtual leader.

They reduced it to almost six minutes, which meant that Jalabert jumped to third place in the general classification.

Casartelli's head hit a concrete barrier at high speed without wearing a helmet, and he was declared dead in the hospital.

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

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