Tour de France 1997

Tour de France 1997
Racing series	UCI world rankings
Host country	France , Switzerland Andorra
Competition period	July 5th to 27th, 1997
Stages	21st
overall length	3942 km
Starting field	198 from 25 nations in 22 teams (of which 139 arrived at the finish)
winner
Overall rating	1st Jan Ullrich 100: 30: 35 h 2nd Richard virusesque + 9:09 min 3rd Marco Pantani + 14:03 min
Team evaluation	Team Deutsche Telekom 301: 51: 30 h
course
← Tour de France 1996	Tour de France 1998 →

84th Tour de France 1997 - final result
Route length	21 stages, 3,942.3 km
Tour winner	Jan Ullrich	100: 30: 35 h (39.223 km / h)
Second	Richard virusesque	+ 9:09 min
Third	Marco Pantani	+ 14:03 min
Fourth	Abraham Olano	+ 15:55 min
fifth	Fernando Escartín	+ 20:32 min
Sixth	Francesco Casagrande	+ 22:47 min
seventh	Bjarne Riis	+ 26:34 min
Eighth	José María Jiménez	+ 31:17 min
Ninth	Laurent Dufaux	+ 31:55 min
Tenth	Roberto Conti	+ 32:26 min
Green jersey	Erik Zabel	350 p.
Second	Frédéric Moncassin	223 P.
Third	Mario Traversoni	198 P.
Dotted jersey	Richard virusesque	579 P.
Second	Jan Ullrich	328 P.
Third	Francesco Casagrande	309 P.
White jersey	Jan Ullrich	100: 30: 35 h
Second	Peter Luttenberger	+ 45:39 min
Third	Michael Boogerd	+ 1:00:33 h
Team evaluation	Team Deutsche Telekom	301: 51: 30 h
Second	Mercatone Uno	+ 31:56 min
Third	Festina Watches	+ 47:52 min

The 84th Tour de France took place from July 5th to 27th, 1997 and ran over 3942 km on 21 stages.

Teams / participants

In the 1997 Tour de France, 22 teams competed. 7 Germans , 8 Swiss and 2 Austrians were among the 198 drivers . 139 racing drivers reached the finish in Paris and were classified.

→ See: Complete list of driver field

route

This time the tour was counterclockwise; After a series of flat stages, it first went to the Pyrenees , then to the Alps . In addition, a mountain time trial in Saint-Étienne and a stage through the Vosges were on the program. The final time trial on a flat route had Disneyland just outside Paris as the start and finish point. There were stage locations outside France in Andorra and Switzerland .

Race course

Erik Zabel in particular shone on the flat stages with three stage wins and Mario Cipollini with two successes. In addition, the latter wore the yellow jersey for four days. A breakaway attempt succeeded on the fifth stage: stage winner Cédric Vasseur took the lead in the overall classification, which he was only to give up again in the Pyrenees.

The favorites were those who had already achieved top positions in previous years: The Swiss Alex Zülle , second from 1995 , who was handicapped by a broken collarbone in the Tour de Suisse ; Abraham Olano , last year's winner Bjarne Riis and his Telekom team colleague Jan Ullrich . Marco Pantani and Richard Virusque were considered good climbing specialists, but not as above-average time trialists, so that they were less likely to be considered for the overall victory. Tony Rominger , all-time favorite of the last few years, seemed to have passed his zenith at the age of 36. On one of the first flat stages he was involved in a mass fall and had to give up the race with a broken collarbone. Jan Ullrich was initially only intended as a helper for his team leader Bjarne Riis, but this classification was revised in the course of the tour, as Riis could not meet expectations and Ullrich, on the other hand, was in great shape. In addition, Riis, who wanted to attack again, had several problems with his racing bike during the last time trial, so he threw it into the ditch in a rage.

On the 10th stage to Arcalis ( Andorra ), the team management gave Ullrich a "free hand". At the beginning of the final climb he attacked from a leading group with all favorites, none of which could follow him. The German won the stage with 1:08 minutes ahead of Pantani and Virusque and was able to put on the yellow jersey. At the time trial in Saint-Étienne , Ullrich won with a fabulous advantage over the runner-up Virusque, who had started three minutes earlier, and which he even overtook. The following mountain stages were able to win Pantani and Virusque, but Ullrich was able to increase the time lead in the overall standings to both of them on the three stages.

During the tour, Ullrich faced a slightly threatening situation twice: once he lost touch on a downhill stage on an Alpine stage and then waited for Bjarne Riis to bring him back to the top group. He showed the second phase of weakness on a stage through the Vosges , from which the warning "Torment you, you pig" is handed down, which team colleague Udo Bölts is said to have called out to him.

Ullrich won the tour with the greatest advantage (9:09 minutes) since 1984 . He is the only German who could win this tour.

The stages

Jan Ullrich and Udo Bölts

Marco Pantani on the way to Alpe d'Huez

Stages	Day	Start finish	km	Stage winner	Yellow jersey
prolog	5th July	Rouen	7.3 ( EZF )	Chris Boardman	Chris Boardman
1st stage	July 6th	Rouen - Forges-les-Eaux	192	Mario Cipollini	Mario Cipollini
2nd stage	7th of July	Saint-Valery-en-Caux - Vire	262	Mario Cipollini
3rd stage	8th of July	Vire - Plumelec	224	Erik Zabel
4th stage	July 9	Plumelec - Puy du Fou	223	Nicola Minali
5th stage	10th of July	Chantonnay - La Châtre	261.5	Cédric Vasseur	Cédric Vasseur
6th stage	July 11th	Le Blanc - Marennes	215.5	Jeroen Blijlevens
7th stage	July 12	Marennes - Bordeaux	194	Erik Zabel
8th stage	July 13th	Sauternes - Pau	161.5	Erik Zabel
9th stage	July 14th	Pau - Loudenvielle	182	Laurent Brochard
10th stage	15th of July	Luchon - Arcalis ( AND )	252.5	Jan Ullrich	Jan Ullrich
11th stage	16th of July	Andorra-la-Vella (AND) - Perpignan	192	Laurent Desbiens
Rest day
12th stage	July 18th	Saint-Étienne - Saint-Étienne	55.5 (EZF)	Jan Ullrich	Jan Ullrich
13th stage	July 19	Saint-Etienne - L'Alpe d'Huez	203.5	Marco Pantani
14th stage	20th of July	Le Bourg-d'Oisans - Courchevel	148	Richard virusesque
15th stage	21 July	Courchevel - Morzine	208.5	Marco Pantani
16th stage	22nd of July	Morzine - Friborg ( CH )	181	Christophe Mengin
17th stage	July 23	Friborg (CH) - Colmar	218.5	Neil Stephens
18th stage	24th July	Colmar - Montbeliard	175.5	Didier Rous
19th stage	July 25th	Montbeliard - Dijon	172	Mario Traversoni
20th stage	July 26th	Euro Disneyland - Euro Disneyland	63 (EZF)	Abraham Olano
21st stage	July 27th	Euro Disneyland - Paris	149.5	Nicola Minali

→ Main article : List of Tour de France stage locations

Jerseys in the course of the tour

→ See: Final results in the individual ratings

The table shows the wearer of the respective jersey during the individual stage or the leaders of the respective overall ranking on the evening of the previous day.

stage	Yellow jersey	Green jersey	Dotted jersey	White jersey	Team evaluation
01st stage	Chris Boardman	Chris Boardman	not forgiven	Jan Ullrich	Team Deutsche Telekom
02nd stage	Mario Cipollini	Mario Cipollini	Artūras Kasputis
03rd stage			Laurent Brochard
04th stage		Erik Zabel
05th stage
06th stage	Cédric Vasseur				GAN
07th stage
08th stage
09th stage
10th stage					Team Deutsche Telekom
11th stage	Jan Ullrich		Richard virusesque		Festina Watches
12th stage
13th stage					Team Deutsche Telekom
14th stage
15th stage
16th stage
17th stage
18th stage
19th stage
20th stage
winner	Jan Ullrich	Erik Zabel	Richard virusesque	Jan Ullrich	Team Deutsche Telekom

Web links

Commons : Tour de France 1997  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tour de France 1997 in the ProCyclingStats.com database
• radsport-seite.de for the 1997 tour