Armstrong had been favored to win, his competitors seen as being German Jan Ullrich, Spaniards Roberto Heras and Iban Mayo, and fellow Americans Levi Leipheimer and Tyler Hamilton.

With two individual time trials scheduled in the last week, one of them the climb of Alpe d'Huez, the directors were hoping for a close race until the end.

The two riders who defeated Armstrong in the recently held 2004 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré were Iban Mayo and Tyler Hamilton, both of whom were considered potential challengers.

This Tour would end up being the best finish of his career, but in part due to this tough start he would not be a threat to the elite riders for the remainder of the race.

37 year old elite sprinter Mario Cipollini went down and had a difficult time getting back to the main pack and was not among the riders fighting for the stage win.

The final breakaway was caught with 4 km to go and the stage was won by Jaan Kirsipuu of AG2R Prévoyance ahead of Robbie McEwen of Lotto–Domo and Thor Hushovd of Crédit Agricole.

Marco Velo crashed violently, broke his collarbone and when he hit the ground landed on a glass bottle which cut his other shoulder open.

A breakaway of five riders eventually went clear and Team Fassa Bortolo tried controlling the escape in a manner similar to what they had done during the Giro a few months earlier where they were able to get sprinter Alessandro Petacchi in position to win an astonishing nine stages.

Christophe Moreau, GC rider for Team Credit Agricole who had finished in the top ten twice in recent years also got caught out in the peloton split and lost nearly four minutes.

Roberto Heras of Team Liberty Seguros, who was an instrumental Lieutenant of Armstrong in previous Tour victories and himself a multi-time champion of the Vuelta a España, also had a tough time through the cobbles but he was able to fight his way back to the elite group.

As a result, the general classification shifted to Armstrong taking over the maillot jaune and the next places being taken by his teammates Hincapie, Landis, Azevedo and Chechu Rubiera making up the new top 5.

She was paid a reasonable fee and confessed to some of the relatively minor things she had seen while working for Team US Postal, because she was worried some younger riders elsewhere in the sport may have died as a result of doping gone wrong.

A crash inside the flamme rouge caused McEwen to miss the sprint as Tom Boonen of Team Quick Step defeated O'Grady, who would maintain his narrow lead over the four closest opponents in the points competition.

Towards the end of the stage the powerful riding of Francisco Mancebo of Team Illes Balears was enough open a small gap ahead of the yellow jersey group.

Richard Virenque was attempting to break the record he shared with Lucien Van Impe and Federico Bahamontes by winning his 7th King of the mountains competition and he was the first rider to launch an attack.

[21] He had a bad night, was urinating a colour close to black from all the dead red blood cells, had developed a fever and was nervous to the point he wondered if he might die in his sleep.

Clear we lost the leader and didn't makethe podium, but I thinkthe guys here are goodguys and we change a little bit the strategy and we gonowto try to win a stage.

"[24] Óscar Pereiro, a young domestique initially riding in support of Hamilton, now became the highest GC rider for Phonak and would end the Tour in 10th.

Near the end of the stage some rowdy and over enthusiastic fans could have caused Armstrong trouble but he managed to deal with the Americans until he was safely inside the barriers where the finish line was.

Other team managers of note during the Tour included Marc Sergeant and Patrick Lefevere both of whom were in the 2nd year of their two decade runs at Lotto and Quickstep respectively, Eusebio Unzué of Illes Balears who directed Delgado, Induráin and would stay with the team through the Movistar era, "The Iron Sergeant" Giancarlo Ferretti and Jean-René Bernaudeau, who directed Voeckler in this Tour.

Later that night Armstrong received death threats targeting him during the time trial the following day when 750,000 fans were expected on and around Alp d'Huez and crowd control would be, for all intents and purposes, impossible.

LeMond suffered from extreme paranoia[26] because he also had to worry about his food being poisoned, his brakes being manipulated, his drug tests being altered, being attacked from within his own team and being pushed off his bike while riding through potentially hostile crowds; many of these warnings coming from the Tour Directeur himself confirming their validity.

Padrnos and Stefano Zanini nearly had to leave the Tour because a doping hearing concerning the 2001 Giro d'Italia was taking place in Italy, and they may have had to give testimony.

There were several strong riders in this break, including Pereiro and Jalabert of Team Phonak as well as Merckx Bettini, Voeckler and Scott Sunderland of Alessio–Bianchi among a few others.

On the final lap Fabian Cancellara took a shot, but wasn't able to get a gap and fell back into the bunch as the leadout trains formed for the upcoming sprint.

Tom Boonen of Team Quick-Step–Davitamon who finished 6th in the points competition won the stage, announcing his arrival as one of the strongest sprinters in the coming years.

Levi Leipheimer: rode for well over a decade and had top tier results in several grand tours putting him behind only LeMond and Armstrong among American riders in many respects.

[34][35] Later that day it was confirmed in a USADA statement that Armstrong was banned for life and would be disqualified from any and all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to 1 August 1998, including forfeiture of any medals, titles, winnings, finishes, points and prizes.

[1] On 22 October 2012, the Union Cycliste Internationale endorsed the USADA sanctions, and decided not to award victories to any other rider or upgrade other placings in any of the affected events.

[40] In addition, there was a combativity award given after each mass start stage to the rider considered, by a jury, to have "made the most effort and who has demonstrated the best sportsmanship".