This Tour was noted by the "fall" of favourite Miguel Induráin, 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.

However, due to appalling weather conditions, including snow, the organisers cut the stage to just 46 km.

Bjarne Riis won the stage and opened a crucial 44 second gap over Telekom teammate Jan Ullrich.

At the same time tour spokesman Philippe Sudres stated that: "We consider philosophically that he can no longer claim to have won.

[b][10][11] The prologue was won by Alex Zülle two seconds ahead of specialist Chris Boardman as overall contenders Bjarne Riis and Miguel Induráin came in sixth and seventh respectively.

Zulle held onto the yellow jersey through the first few flat stages but in stage 4 a half dozen riders not in overall contention escaped in a breakaway and stayed away finishing several minutes ahead of the main field putting Stéphane Heulot in the yellow jersey for a few days.

In the time trial he finished more than thirty seconds better than Riis and gained just over a minute on Indurain, Tony Rominger and debutant Jan Ullrich who was having an impressive start to his first Tour.

He would maintain a narrow lead over the next several stages and by the time the race reached the Pyrenees Abraham Olano was in second just under a minute behind with Berzin in third, Rominger in fourth, Riis’ teammate Ullrich in fifth and five-time defending champion Miguel Induráin struggling to stay in the top ten nearly 5:00 back.

Stage seventeen was won by Laurent Dufaux who in the process moved into fourth place overall, but Riis finished in the same time.

Stage nineteen ITT was the last opportunity for major changes to be made in the general classification and the stage was won by Ullrich who finished nearly a minute ahead of second-placed Indurain who had completely dominated Individual Times Trials at the Tour de France for the previous several years.