How Jan Ullrich DESTROYED ALL in the MOST DOPED Race EVER

let's begin in the final days of July 1997. the images you're seeing are possibly the final images of a lean and Fit channel Rick in his professional career he'd just been crowned the Tour de France champion and this was just before he started drinking his beloved triple blonde beers and surrounding himself with streetwalkers and enjoying various other stimulants he had been doping for years now at just 23. he'd been crowned King of the cycling world after crushing his rivals in the hardest tour of the last decade the last tour that exceeded a hundred hours and the last tour in which we fans believed the athletes the last tour before the Festina affair maybe that's why many of you have such good memories of this edition of the Grand Boulevard why not review it together and remember you can subscribe to the channel or join as a member to enjoy exclusive benefits and now without further Ado let the show begin 1997 it started with a bombshell in the cycling Universe Miguel injury the great big Mig was retiring the winner of five Tour de France was exhausted after being beaten by bianaris in the 1996 Edition and then there was the mistreatment by his directors who forced him to compete in the Welter Espana instead of allowing him to do the world championships it was enough to make him throw in the towel for good in addition there was the appearance of new hematocrit controls that could explain the use of epo in the blood of cyclists it was enough to frighten many riders who were facing their last rides as professionals one of these Riders was Swiss Tony rominger who just signed for the new French super team confidus led by the legendary serial guimar team in which Michaela Ferrari would continue to pull the strings something that Tony's new teammate Lance Armstrong knew all too well he had just overcome his cancer and he knew that he would have to wait a little while to race a game with only one egg in the baskets but when the time was right he would call on the services of Dr Ferrari the other big move in the transfer market had involved Abraham Milano world champion in 1995 and one of mapei's big star names but faced with the uci's in position to reduce the map a squad they decided to keep the Belgian Classics block and expel the Spaniard from the team and so he signed for bonesto and all the Spaniards thought that he could replicate into your own success so far his season had been very similar to a classic big Mig with victories in the uska busy clatter and a great performance in the dolphin a where he finished second are the favorites for the tour after the previous Edition were obviously the combative Festina of rishabironk and Lauren dufo but apart from an excellent Victory by the Frenchman in the Grand Prix La marseillaise at the beginning of the season the watchmakers had spent their entire season without their EPO vials they were hiding like moles waiting to give us a real show in the hot French July now the big favorites for this edition of the tour had to be Deutsche Telecom they practically maintained the same block of the previous year with a few young signings for their ranks and they were pinning Great Hopes on the young German Jan Ulrich who after finishing second in the 1996 tour arrived like a rocket to the French round after finishing third in a tour of Switzerland where he was clearly the strongest Rider and he won the national championships of his country of course but the great candidate for the specialized press had to be Beyond a Rhys the winner of the previous Edition at the tender age of 32. the bald-headed Dane wanted to prove to everyone that he was still the best and he had an absolutely superb spring winning numerous Danish competitions and taking a delighting pissing in face of true art and Specialists such as mckaylee Bartley or Laura shalliber in the Amstel gold race where the Telecom giant attacked with 25 kilometers to go and wasn't seen again until he was drinking those dubious quality canes on the Winner's podium at the same time the shiny headed man who in this country was considered to be the athlete of the century was living a double life cheating on his faithful and Silent wife to sweat heavily over a much more attractive handball player oh he was like a monkey in heat Luigi jokini Reese's medical Guru and neighbor and lucard asked him not to Pedal so much on his bike or to sweat so much in dirty Motel beds but big be honor paid no attention and so he arrived more tired than usual at the start line of the tour which for this Edition would begin in the northern city of Huang the Grande par was being held there so close to Paris because it was the 10th anniversary of the death of the legendary whoremonger and five-time Tour de France winner Jacob he passed away after suffering from severe cancer Jean-Marie LeBlanc and Omari Sports paid tribute to the figure of the mythical doped French cyclist and had an assembly of the other five-time tour Champions creating a few new real atmosphere an atmosphere that must have been very similar to the one in Bianna Reese's family car where his wife could already smell that the Dosa number one of the previous year's tour winner had practically made him Sprout antlers like a rutting stag Mr 60 was really furious with LeBlanc for pinarello had designed a time trial bike for him exclusively one which cost more than fifty thousand dollars but omery Sports wouldn't allow him to ride it in the prologue this prologue was only seven and a half kilometers long and practically flat as a pancake and it soon became clear that Festina had saved their fireworks for the gromble Bruno Russell's team put the young Frenchman Christophe Monroe into first place with a great time of 8 minutes and 32 seconds but their Chief Rivals Telecom they had a real doped up beast at their disposal and on this occasion no one was surprised the animal Rick he couldn't have the famous pinarello bike for Telecom either but he didn't give a [ __ ] at an impressive speed of 52 kilometers an hour the red-haired man in those fetching sunglasses reduced morose Time by almost 10 seconds recording 8 minutes and 22. impressive although he was starting as a supposed gregario everyone knew that Olay was ready to fight for the yellow Jersey now a rider who created more doubts was the Italian Marco pantani of Mercato niuno after a very serious injury Milan Turin in 1995 elephantino returned to the French race with lower expectations than in other years and his prologue did not exactly leave him in a good place now no one expected a victory for the bald-headed Italian but his time of 8 minutes and 59 left the Italian crowd cold Along Came the Spaniard Abraham Alano a specialist against the clock but he looked rather strange without an aerodynamic helmet only wearing a backwards casket and that atop his always sad and struggling face this was a man expected to win but the former client of Michaela Ferrari seemed to be lacking something and his performance dropped and he could only set the third fastest time eight seconds behind Janel Rick now at this point the crowd could expect Olay to be overtaken by Chris Boardman the British gun rider was an excellent prologue Rider the course favored him and well he came to the race hungry after the incident suffered in the previous two tours with an absolutely spectacular position on the bike against the clock Roger leger's disciple fulfilled all the predictions and took first place with an excellent time of 8 minutes and 20 seconds now another Rider who may have been a clear number one favorite in other conditions was Alex Zula but Swiss on sea Rider had undergone collarbone surgery only weeks before the start of the tour and he decided not to take any risks on the few bends curiously he was not wearing the world time trial Champions Jersey that he had won the previous year instead he simply wore the Rainbow on his sleeves he clocked a good time of 8 minutes and 25 better than for example the informal Arno now Tony rominger and Afghani belzin wrote two excellent time trials between those of Ulrich and Zula and so there were only two Riders left to finish the first was in his eternal red spotted Jersey and again he lost huge amounts of time against the clock with a rather pitiful time of 9 minutes and five seconds placing him 134th on the stage then wearing the yellow jersey for the last time in his life was big Biana Reese full of birdies in his head after seeing ulrich's time and crossing the Finish Line with a rather disappointing 8 minutes and 35. the bald man with the Band-Aid on his nose didn't seem to be in the best moment of his sporting career and thus Baldwin won the first Mao Zhong proving as always that the legere guys are always very clean and ever so credible the 1997 tour had almost all its flat stages concentrated into the first week there were no teen time trials no individual time trials just flat stages with succulent bonuses at the Finish Line this meant that the sprinters teams were taking these stages very seriously indeed and the Peloton will be let out in single file almost continuously since in addition to the stage wins the sprinters could take the yellow Jersey the first of these flat days was between Juan and Forge leso it was an example of what could happen in these first chaotic weeks crashes crashes and more crashes such as the one that caught the legendary doped Rider jamalidine abdujaparov the ink on his new Lotto contract was still to dry when he hit the ground but after catching the three Anonymous escapees of the day the Peloton entered the chaos of the final kilometers led by the Red Train of Seiko and then came another of those crashes with 12 kilometers to go Marco pantani Alex zuller Luke LeBlanc Fernando escartine Ivan Gotti Francesco Casa Grande and Lauren dufo and the big surprise Diana Reese they were all caught out now the problem was that Ulrich and seven other teammates of the ball Dane decided to stay in the front group with Eric zabel to prepare for the Sprints and so the doped 33 year old found himself with just Christian hen for company the rest of the German team's Riders they didn't want to wait for their supposed leader instead they worked furiously to try to get a stage win for Eric and to show their support for who they believe was the real Alpha Male of the team Janel Rick in the final Sprint team Telecom were well a long way away from winning because it went to the one dressed in his Uncle Sam homage pants super doped Super Mario chipolini who came in raising his arms like Pavarotti singing Nessun Dormer mistreating his Rivals monkasan Steels and zabel as he used to mistreat his ex-wife then at 58 seconds came Reese's group very very pissed off pissed off to the extent that Reese declared shortly afterwards that his team was a real piece of [ __ ] that hadn't helped him at all was restrained while to go the fruit came out to play Peacemaker he addressed the media to calm down the journalists and calm down his bald-headed Rider with a message saying that the Telecom leader was undoubtedly Beyond a Rhys they didn't believe it not even when drunk someone who was drunk with joy was chipolini on the podium as he took the yellow Jersey from Boardman and assured the press that now he would wear his classic yellow shorts a look which so many riders have imitated throughout history it was a Pity not to see the stars and stripes again I guess the next day was a new very long flat stage of almost 260 kilometers and only one Rider dead to get out of the Peloton in the first kilometers the very modest guvnu of the more modest Big Mad team now more interesting was Alex Zola's attack with 45 kilometers to go taking advantage of a little move by the doped Pascal ervay and the whoremonger Michael Bogart this was an attack with a message a message that Alex was fine despite the previous day's crash where six Riders had fallen on his freshly operated collarbone Zola was displaying his big cojones and then he was caught seven kilometers later and the bulletin headed straight for the finish line and on this occasion we experienced a beautiful duel between the dope most sprinters of the late 1990s while Eric zabel was showing his consistency by launching his Sprint about 200 meters from the Finish Line the yellow Jersey chipolini gradually overtook him on the left for a precious win a win that of course kept him as the tour leader the Press wondered if big Mario would be able to keep it on the third day with a finish on the popular plumalek wall after 224 kilometers the Breakaway was certainly a higher quality one with legendary doped Riders like future Monument winner jealous bottle Army of Festina or Danny Nelson of Rabobank along with bernesto's Portuguese Orlando Rodriguez and Gans Francois Simone it was the latter who left the other stranded in a breakaway without much future although in the Peloton another fall amazed the world several Riders had to abandon due to injuries among them the legendary Tony rominger he broke his collarbone and with it broke the dream of winning the tour at the age of 37 under the tutelage of Ferrari and guimar the Swiss Rider had started very well but even the greatest Riders can come to unfortunate ends at the arrival at plumleck the punch was already United and there we saw something spectacular faced with attacks from dangerous men on this terrain like Lauren Russia or his namesake yellow bear the German Champion Ulrich easily broke away from the group to catch them and then set up the Sprint for his teammate Eric zabel Mapes doped Belgian youngster Frank vondenbrook tried to surprise Everyone by attacking on the outside but the German Sprinter quickly caught his wheel and was able to overtake him on the rights well behind an overmatched Ulrich relaxed and a sweaty ball Reese gritted his teeth in a dignified but well rather pathetic third position Ollie's work had been so brutal that he had left the lot in only 20 units among them were their own colano escartine and the Austrian doped rats you know who we mean LeBlanc and leader Cipollini were 11 seconds back and then pantani Casa Grande and Zulu were the big losers with one minute and 25 seconds deficits Sabal returned with his son Rick to climb atop the podium for winning at the tour for the third year in a row although chipolini was still the overall leader for the fourth day we had a new flat stage of 223 kilometers with a finish in the theme park of and only two Riders escaped the Italian mg Rider Nicola Loda and the Belgian Lotto Rider Paul Van hefts they took advantage of the fourth category Sweeney air climb 13 kilometers from the finish and we saw an interesting move by the Festina team the king of the mountains Lauren brochure and Risha veronk attacked alongside casinos Frenchman Pascal chanter initially chasing Mountain points the Telecom team had to work to catch these escapees Ulrich himself was involved and then there was a crash not caught on camera one which left Marco pantani and Alex Zula on the floor poor Alex he would retire later that day in the face of so much adversity falling behind again it's so few men in the bunch the Sprint was always going to be chaotic and we soon saw chipolini doing enough to avoid a crash with zabel Victory went to the day smartest Rider batik's Italian Nicola minali ahead Frederick monkasan who lacked last year's strength in the Sprints but all these crashes well the Riders were feeling rather tense and more than a little bit Fed Up tension was tremendous and on top of that in the fifth stage the Riders had to cover 261 kilometers to lashatra the big GC contenders asked for clemency and chipolini who was always smart when it came to Mafia moves decided to stop the mistreatment and gave the stage to a brave man a brave man was Cedric vesser the current team manager of coffee this at the time he was riding for Roger Le Jay's everclean gan team and perhaps because of that sympathy with the lack of doping no laughing at the back uh there was such Spirit from the ever fighting goals and the bunch gave Vassar a tremendous lead allowing him to build up more than 17 minutes he took advantage of an intermediate Sprints with a nice Jewel between chipolini and zabal and then a small group of riders tried to surprise the Peloton scene the inaction of the same but vassar's teammates also known for his cleanliness Stuart O'Grady filtered into the little break to prevent any attempt at Victory from the others and thus in a heroic fashion Vassar solo to the Finish Line after almost 200 kilometers in the break a gift of victory that also came with a prize since his lead of more than 3 minutes and 24 seconds gave him the yellow Jersey by two minutes and 17 seconds ahead of Super Mario an impressive Feats a feat which he still dines out on today and so he's one of the most beloved guys in French cycling how life can change from one day to the next day chaos returned with the sixth stage finishing in maren a new crash involved Mario chipolini himself and yevgenie berzin who also broke his collarbone and waved goodbye to this tour rather anonymously there were two classic dopas such as Rolf Yemen of casino and jamalidine abdujaparov of Lotto they were looking for a surprise but the Peloton had already decided that it had given all the gifts out that it wanted to give not only had the crashes left the group decimated again but the Peloton was so doped up that the testosterone had to be used up somewhere and so we saw a Sprint full of lurches one where Tom steals would end up being expelled from the race after receiving a punch from Frederick monkasan and returning it by throwing a Jerry can from his bike well it beat on at least and surprisingly this did not cause a massive destructive fall lucky lucky fellow took his second stage win by sliding to the left ahead of Jerome blyleven's and watch out to moladine abdujaparov he didn't care whether he was in the Breakaway or not he would ride without a helmet fully doped to the finish line and the end was that very stage to the end of the day became known that he had tested positive in the second stage for bromentan and clambuterol at that time doping controls were very light so imagine the level of doping of the Uzbek best of all his country's National Federation knew that he tested positive for stimulants five times during the season the season where for example he'd achieved two victories in the Dauphine a it was a sad end for the biggest doped Rider of the 90s but he still managed to climb to second place on that day after zabel's disqualification and the victory for the Dutchman of TVM can you imagine such a sanction now stage seven was again flats and it was a bad day for Seiko after jira winner Little Live angotti and his Superstar teammate big Mario chipolini both dropped out they look really angry in the pictures but in reality he was returning to Italy to sleep with kind and caring concubines now three of his compatriots Adriano Buffy Marco saligari and Flavio vanzella they wanted to pay tribute to him by escaping in the day's Breakaway a breakaway was short a game be foiled by the hungry sprinters teams as usual in this tour the crashes happened again and again one of them at a dangerous Point took vehicle LeBlanc lattenberger and of course Marco pantani who was at the center of all the crashes in this Tour de France Sprint this time was totally clean and the green jersey Eric zabel took Revenge by winning ahead of the Estonian from Casino Young cursipu now the second victory for Telecom and for the doped zabel who was placed second in the GC the last of the flat stages of this very long first week finishing in Beau caught the Riders on a day with changeable weather a day in which the Festina continued with their tactic of scoring on all the mountain climbs with the ineffable Axl Rose fan Lauren brochure as leader of this secondary classification many attempted breakaways occurred from U.S postals Russian Vietnam to lottos Belgian Peter farazine but Yan Ulrich and Telecom were not willing to give away another vassar-like Victory they knew that zabel was in brutal form and without chipolini in the race Steals and doped abdujaparov missing the green jersey had a better chance of winning than ever and so it was again that the best placed an almost unchallenged Sun maker held off the comeback of Nicola minali and Jerome blylevens to take his third win creating an almost definitive lead in the points classification in the first week but now the flat terrain was over when the ground book was about to begin with the mountain action now it might not seem it's so far but the 84th edition of the tour was one of the most mountainous in its history on the first day in the Pyrenees starting in pole was going to be proof of that 182 kilometers where the sulo the mythical tormalade the aspan and the aze would be climbed to finish downhill towards ludambiel the differences in the first week were gigantic for not having had time trials the straw man leader Vassar was 2 minutes and 56 seconds ahead of Ulrich three minutes and four seconds ahead of Alano and four minutes ahead of Reese four minutes and 23 seconds ahead of Risha vironk and more than seven minutes ahead of Marco pantani but now it was the terrain for the doped climbers and they were going to show that the fireworks they had in the most dope tour in history were absolutely superb in fact on the first ramps of the sulo the first pass of the day we saw the first attack of the always crazy Luke LeBlanc but as we were used to the years were definitely not on his side now and knowing his quality Festina who with all their blood full of epo pumping away in their legs they organized a beastly Chase alongside them watching Telecom of course who seem to be set for a sprinters fight on the gradients the Peloton was soon whittled down to 40 and we were on the first pass of the day Lawrence yellow bear had already been dropped Cedric Vassar lost a minute and 15 seconds to the bunch on The Descent Bruno Russell ordered his men to attack to wear down the Germans and the all is dangerous and ever so violent Pascal elvey followed orders to the letter while kelmay's Spanish tractor Javier Pascal Rodriguez followed him this rather strange Odd Couple reached loose on severe at the foot of the charmele with a four minute lead over the bunch there they always in France and Pascal Rodriguez stuck to him like a chick now the fog didn't prevent us from seeing how team Telecom with the then young and doped Austrian climber George dutchnig increased the pace on the first ramps of the tourmalade soon we saw Janel Rick glued to his wheel climbing the pyrenean Colossus with tremendous ease and behind him with Festina waiting like cheaters the rest of the Riders were really suffering from the strong pace of the two teams and every time the road got steeper practically only the leaders of the other teams were left in front of the two super blocks of this tour when touchnery had finished his work it was time for festina's Finn yunalauka he had to attack of course the Finnish guinea pig made a tactical attack to generate superiority for the watchmakers for they already had ervay in France and it was so beastly that it began to shatter the Peloton into pieces spani and Abraham Milano one of the main favorites was dropped completely convincingly before the astonished eyes of the Spaniards who saw how fragile their new Miguel injury was he had absolutely nothing in common with big Mig it was without Ferrari's medicines of course and then as if he were a child's toy lauco was quickly absorbed by the group pulled by a superb young Ulrich in form clearly Superior to that shown in 1996. there were only 19 Riders left in the bunch on the first Mountain Stage and this with more than a hundred kilometers to go and amongst the group four Telecom and five Festina systematic doping seemed to be working now knowing the situation viron called a dufo to attack as he had done the previous year but Ulrich was wise to this and quickly jumped on his wheel with tremendous ease not looking quite as comfortable as reigning Champion Biana Reese in fact he was looking angry just as his trainer chakini had warned him that he shouldn't now fortunately for the bald eagle of herning his teammates Janel Rick had retained the principles of loyalty from his communist childhood and without complaining Jan started peddling at a false Pace at the head of the bunch so the old man with not so much hair wouldn't suffer so much anymore and so the Unfaithful Dane took the lead for a moment to try to scare Festina a tactical move that seemed to work as the watchmakers then decided not to attack any more along the climb to the tourmalade strong Pace was being imposed by just one man Janel Rick every time he accelerated he left the group in tatters and even with just two kilometers to go to the top there was only vironk Rhys escartine Casa Grande Jimenez luxemberger and dufo able to follow now that moment would have been perfect for dufo or be wrong to attack with elvay in France and Rhys suffering and bolts hanging back with pantani ulrich's Serenity and this image of absolute power was generating too much fear in the always combative French Buccaneers on the pace of the climb finally dropped ahead Pascal Rodriguez behaved like a real filthy rat and he only relieved Pascal ervay to go first over the door Malay to take a little economic prize then the group of favorites crowned just 18 seconds later Alano and Vassar finished two and a half minutes behind on that climb but for Telecom the Spanish rider was of no importance they had seen him so exhausted so worn out they knew that even if he returned to the group it wouldn't be a match for them so will Rick relaxed his Pace to let Reese have a little rest during The Descent to the aspan road olano and Vassar did indeed catch up with the group of favorites the second category pass was the least hard of the day and so the Telecom Riders worked less hard than on the tourmal a tiring Pace imposed by the German Udo bolts this climb at least left us with the hilarious moment of Pascal ervay taking revenge on Rodriguez with a tremendous attack just a few meters from the top reminding us of his doped exhibition on the izawa three years later and although he topped out with only five seconds lead on 30 Riders on the road to aze Festina attacked again this time as a Duo didieru and the king of the mountains Lauren Russia were on fire and along with them was the Swiss map a champion Oscar Cameron's in interestingly they didn't send elevator work and so it had to be real soon pulls throughout on The Descent and the flat to as a managing to pull out a lead of more than two minutes over the bulletin at the foot of the first category pass Cameron's in then set about pulling with brochure playing the role of tick that Pascal Rodriguez had played kilometers earlier the Swiss had finished second in the tour of Switzerland ahead of Ulrich and he was very motivated because he knew that with luck he could become leader of the tour but Oscar was wrong and halfway up the climb he paid for his efforts while Brusha sang the Guns and Roses song it's so easy when everybody tries to please me baby yes he escaped in the lead with a very hard attack it was at this stage that Janel Rick once again took the lead of the bone Shad as if he were a mere domestique he began to pull with all his mites and within a few meters he left olano lautenberger Vassar Casa Grande and many other climbers stranded only Reese dufo the ankh ascartine Jimenez pantani and Conte could keep up with the German he was so strong that he allowed himself the luxury of looking back perhaps see Reese's bald head about to explode from the effort that his teammate was putting him through the image was comical and painful at the same time Ulrich was The Nanny and Rhys was the crying baby begging to end this torture the Festina leader saw that prominent billiard ball glowing and decided to attack it was the umpteenth attack by the French on their national holiday but as before young baby-faced Ulrich came out whistling behind his number 11. Reese suffered like a snail in the Sun and had to rely on the spania Shava Jimenez and escort teen to get alongside pantani on ulrich's Wheel but virank more dope than ever and wanting to perform all of his classic summer shows decided that it was time for another attack another attack and only came out on his wheel ever so easily well everybody else was having such a hard time race number eight was leading the group with a very slow pace for him just so that the ball 96 winner would not be totally humiliated but he was unintentionally humiliating him the images captured already climbing as if he were eating a sandwich sat on the beach and Reese behind him moving on his bike as if he were on the edge of a cliff struggling for life itself until the final kilometer of the essay vironk launched our final attack and went all out for the win at this point Ulrich could no longer think about team orders and to Rudy pevenage Delight he jumped after the Frenchman leaving the whining complaining Eagle honing behind once more he easily reached the wheel of the Festina Rider and just behind not without effort came the bald Market Tony Uno Rider getting on the wheel of the two great animators of this stage just before the summit of the azay they caught up with Russia and although virong tried to unhook his rivals on the descents he didn't succeed this moment was used by the less dangerous brochure to make an attack that well really didn't matter to Yan if he had wanted to the German could have easily caught the French hard rocker but he didn't want to draw blood and humiliate Rhys further and so he stayed behind Richard Marco pantani this is one of the differences why Olay could never defeat Lance Armstrong years later his character was not that of a humiliating bully like Lance he was at hard to do silent tender dumb SD could suddenly become a meat grinding machine and thus it was that Lauren Russia crossed the line as the winner on his country's national holiday and he followed up his song fest with axelrose's classic hit gets in the ring dedicated to Telecom vironk pantani and Ulrich came in 14 seconds behind Shava Jimenez was 33 seconds behind and Reese at 41 seconds with dufo and escartine the image of race number one was pitiful and even more were his statements thanking Ulrich for his work and saying that he had not attacked me wrong because the Telecom leader was still still sad piano Alano came in with lauka and Casa Grande at one minute and seven saving a day in which he was literally defeated 100 kilometers earlier and Vassar bravely saved the yellow Jersey from Ulrich by 13 seconds the defense of the yellow Jersey had been epic and much more dignified than that of baby erlo in 1996 and so Roger Leger continued to prove that his Riders were very clean and very credible the day had been absolutely spectacular with a general classification where olano and Rhys were still in top positions While Veronica pantani had begun their comebacks what everyone was beginning to wonder however was why Janel Rick remained so loyal to be honoris and why didn't he dare to make the big league forwards unfortunately the day after it all blew up now leave a like for the video if you've made it this far just leave one for a tribute to the bald Danish Rider who's given us so many good laughs so far eh on we go the 10th stage and second consecutive Mountain Stage in the Pyrenees was a spectacular 242 kilometers between Lucian and the arculus pass in Andorra the Riders would climb the potato and at the border with Andorra they would climb the very long Port Don Valera had more than 2 400 meters of altitude and the cold Arduino an Oculus at more than 2 380 meters of altitude these last three passes were chained together in the final 75 kilometers of the day what a beast of a day a beast that should finally Define the leadership in the Telecom Group and one where we'd see Festina at the same belligerent attitude of the previous day however on the porter despe nobody moved only Rhys tried to steal Mountain points from the watchmakers but he failed miserably while Brusha vironk and Airway dominated the situation the pace remained slow and the Riders stopped to pay tribute to Barcelona Olympic champion Fabio casatelli at the statue in honor of the deceased cyclist from the 1995 Edition a tragic tragic accident something that well we would never see in today's Times where feelings take a back seat and cyclists a little more than machines at the service of multinational companies and absolutist monarchies one of those present was casatelli's former teammate Lance Armstrong who fortunately recovered from cancer but still being far from able to get on a bike and compete against professionals had come to pay tribute to his friend what we saw on that day stage totally changed his mentality the race had remained calm during the colder port and the Riders again climbed practically hand in hand until the final meters where Festina attacked like wild dogs no doubt the Riders had agreed to leave these efforts until the last three Mountain passes perhaps in solidarity with the weaker Rivals who might not make it past the time limits but on The Descent some Riders from more modest teams they couldn't take it anymore and after several attacks and counter-attacks the Mexican Miguel Arroyo from big mats and the Lithuanian from Casino Andreas casputis started the on Valera at the head of the race however from behind it was the hitherto Forgotten Laurel shall a bear who decided to attack on the first ramps of the pass jumping out of the bunch accompanied by the Danish Rider of U.S postal Peter meinart former teammate of Rhys but because of Ulrich he didn't participate in the 1996 tour best dinner and Telecom wanted to keep the race under better control and so they left them just a few meters ahead now the new Rider of the French watchmakers was Australian Neil Stevens setting the pace in the first kilometers of the long and aurum pass until little by little the main group was thinned out previous days winner brochure was the first to fall as Bruno Russell played the chords of don't cry from that Fiat full of doping products before reaching the detour of puimarron it was the leader Vassar who was ready to throw in the towel Stevens is peddling was really hurting to the extent that behind Abraham Milano was left behind again making it clear that he was a long way short from the expectations that had been placed on his shoulders he had the dopetop bialitas casero and tricky Beltran working for him but even on a stiff climb like this Solano was not up to the level of the top 30 climbers when Neil Stevens caught the two escapees The Finnish guinea pig took over to hold off another shalliber attack and now it was time for Lauren dufoe to set a much higher pace Festina Zippo in this edition of the tour was at a much higher level than the rest of the groups and so they reminded of us great Gaelic teams like finions Runner or Enos La Vie Claire and in a short time they were already more than a minute ahead of Vassar and Alano some of the main groups were starting to quake I'm such bull Reese it was trailing the group with a suffering anguished and painful face oh very very ugly isn't it again ruchoviron could have attacked and left the Dane out of the picture but he didn't dare because of Ulrich and so he rode in front of dufo and Ule and Casa Grande and Jimenez and pantani and conti and lichtenberger escartine Reese and the whoremonger Bogart and the Gringo Kevin Livingston proving that with Ferrari's medicine roaming her or Armstrong could have been perfectly at home at this pace hard-working gel a bear topped out at 24 seconds and the group of Ernesto and Vassar were almost two minutes behind they climbed at such a high Pace that even the red spotted Jersey brusher topped out more than nine minutes behind the race leader but now on The Descent the pace of Festina again reduced the rider's pulses so much so the jalibur arrived with ease as soon as he did he moved forward because as usual with him he had big enough cojones to not be happy to be a simple member of a of a group like this no he wanted to go on and so at the foot of the Arduino he was 33 seconds ahead of the group of favorites a group where Alana was about to return improving once again that he didn't give a [ __ ] about the real bosses of the tour but the wind was a headwind and this started to hurt Laurel jaliber and soon he was exhausted by the efforts on The Descent and soon he was quickly absorbed by the rest of them at that moment a 30 year old Frenchman jean-philippe Doge the modest La Mutual team undoubtedly the worst team in the whole Tour de France decided to attack and he did it with such determination that he overtook Jaja as if he were a Concorde overtaking a Cessna on this second category pass the humble French Rider generated an impressive amount of publicity for his sponsors and then behind every time virank attacked ulric jumped in response with absolute ease and the pace toured and throat and the climb became a rather absurd tug of war all of which allowed writers such as Alano to rejoin the group of favorites the schwa crowned ordino with a 32-second lead over pontani virank and the aforementioned roosters and then a minute later came the lead of us sir and then he launched himself on The Descent as if he hadn't remembered casatelli or the pure cleanliness of the gang group and then he caught up with the favorites to do what true alpha males always do when they are in these situations attack even if they know they will lose in reality this showed that Festina and Telecom had been playing games cat and mouse when they really could have blown up the race this perhaps was festina's biggest mistake as we will see later in this tour for Vassar at this point represented the complete opposite an absolute unknown 10 days earlier but now he was a hero a hero to the French yokels who only watched cycling once a year during the month of July and then on TV and so came Oculus and then came the time for this tour to finally blow up the key moment of the addition and the best moment of German cycling in history right at the start of the andoran pass under the watchful eye of Lance Armstrong yeah and Ulrich took the lead and this time it wasn't to Simply impose his rhythm he was attacking practically sitting down without getting out of the saddle but with such brutal power I've 242 kilometers many medical experts say it's the greatest exhibition of the epocha with an average power of almost 600 watts on 13 long kilometers of ascent yes 600 watts Richard Veron tried to follow him but soon he saw that the pace of race number eight was absolutely unmatchable it was if he had traveled 20 years in time and was chasing German directors and sweet concubines in Sunny mayorkun coves in one Fell Swoop he had dispelled the doubts that only the biggest Rhys fans the other hypocritical Danes had had the Telecom leader well we knew who it was there was only one man and it was a cyclist who was astonishing the planet and it wasn't big Biana a super climber like Marco pantani jumped on virong's wheel and together they started to work under the Andorra and Summer Sun but still the red-haired man's Gap was increasing second by second and meter by meter the bald-headed Reese had been absolutely destroyed behind first in a group with Casa Grande escartine dufo and Alano and then riding behind the Swiss watchmaker during the last kilometers but on his face was the image of a loser a guy who unlike his humble teammate Yan had been more attentive to the sensual and daughter then to the advice of his trainer chakini the German champion at 23 years of age crossed the Finish Line minutes later the absolute unassailable winner he was not only the leader of Telecom he was the leader of the tour and as they said in the French Press he was the new boss of the race Armstrong himself said that when he saw that exhibition he thought that this guy could be a winner of a tour of a 10 in a row since pantani and virong had lost one minute eight seconds on the terrain where they were supposedly better than the tutor crushing difference a difference that was even greater with the other so-called favorites two minutes over Casa Grande three minutes and 23 over recent dufo and almost four minutes over Alano's group and well even more minutes than that to the rest of the rivals who in reality were no longer rivals Olay was already almost three minutes ahead of virank and almost four minutes ahead of Milano and then there was Rhys who hung his head and went to the hotel pensively and he was more than five minutes ahead of pantani oh my goodness and then two days later there was a time trial for the new mayor John to show off on his favorite Terrain before that the Riders had a transition day to look forward to one between Andorra and perpignol and although they climbed the on Valera again it was at the start of the stage and it served only for the Unstoppable bironk with his red dotted Jersey to attack 200 kilometers from the Finish and he crossed the pass protected by Festina as he did again on the last mountainous difficulty of the day called the Shuler shortly afterwards a breakaway with intent was formed packed with legendary dopas such as the party animal and Coke addict Philippe gomo may he rest in peace the stage buyer George hinkapi or the pole who'd finished third in the 93 tour Zenon yaskala but the Gans worked hard for their Sprinter monkasan and caught up with the break several kilometers later there were other groups of doped Riders of course including one with world champion Johann Museum himself they all tried their luck proving that despite the beatings that the Riders were taking in this Chromebook the rest day had served to refresh the riders with bags packed with goodness and freshly doped Bloods but finally only a trio of Epic doped Riders reached the last kilometer in the lead we're talking about the Frenchman Lauren debio francophidus the incomparable Sergey uchakov from polti and the somewhat unknown Italian from mg Carlo finco in a dirty Sprint typical of these times of switching dopas and Dilly dahlias as you saw earlier the long-haired blonde-haired Ukrainian purposely pushed Laurent Debian into the fences and celebrated a win one which was obviously disqualified shortly afterwards not due to simple French favoritism it was Justice in the face of such a violent action the main group arrived only 15 seconds later now in only two mountainous days Seattle record more than proved himself worthy of being leader of the race but that would still be time for a third exhibition in the rolling time trial at Santa Tien 55 kilometers long with the second category climb of the quadrilateral Halfway Around the course now no one absolutely no one doubted that Ulrich would win this time trial especially half days display in Santa Milian a year earlier moreover both he and Rhys now had the uci's approval to use the famous pinarello ghost bike worth thousands and thousands of dollars and they decided to use it on the flatter sections of the course however it was Marco pantani who was surprising all and Sundry for he was coming back to life thanks to the mountainous terrain of the time trial the doped bald Mecca Tony Uno Rider beat vondenbrook's time at the intermediate check with an excellent 45 minutes and six seconds something that neither Bianna Reese who suffered a puncture in his disc wheel nor Abraham Alano not Richard Veron could manage to beat but the forecasts weren't wrong they didn't fail and with its classic white cap turned backwards in purest gangster rap style of those times Jan Ulrich swept the competition aside at the intermediate check with an incredible time of 43 minutes and 24 seconds almost two minutes better than that of elephantino the differences were frightening and even though Alano and Rhys improved their performances on the flat terrain and downhill run into Santa Tien pantani reached the Finish Line beating the record of his compatriot Casa Grande with one hour 20 minutes and 6 seconds going from strength to strength in a Terrain that really didn't favor him the bald-headed Reese confirmed that the pinarello Phantom was a spectacular bike for this discipline and he beat the time of the supermarket sponsored racer by 34 seconds the time that Alano couldn't improve upon for he finished six seconds slower than the Dane yet another failure for the great Spanish hope however someone who was luckier this time was the king of the mountains Richard veronk he was doing a remarkable time travel his chances but then Janel Rick overtook him as if he were a Formula One auto driven by his compatriot Schumacher the doped Frenchman who started three minutes in front of the dopes German had the option now of following the wheel of race number eight serving as a reference in the final part of the course Olay crossed the Finish Line literally humiliating his Rivals practically pissing in the face and the Frankfurter had come out in the Daylights for all to see Yan logged an excellent time of 1 hour 16 minutes and 24 seconds a full three minutes and eight seconds better than his new gregario and Road Captain Reese and three minutes and four seconds ahead of virank who now moved up to a surprising second position in the race rather thanks to the German slipstream that had guided him for more than eight kilometers to the finish line the differences on GC were now well staggering Ulrich had humiliated vironk and the latter was second overall in the tour at five minutes 42 seconds the not at all dangerous Alano was already eight minutes adrift as was the bullying ghost of a rider Biana Reese perhaps the most dangerous rider in the top 10 was Marco pantani but he was more than nine minutes behind Olay overall the overall was looking arguably like a foregone conclusion and yet it remained a great tour with chances for the German to lose it all in a single day that's why you should keep watching this video because the legendary doping show makes something worth watching now you'll have gathered by now that this 1997 tour was absolutely magical what could we expect after a time trial exhibition worthy of the greatest indirane from the greatest doped Beast of all time a stage of more than 200 kilometers and practically Flats oh dear yes but the Finish is at the mythical legendary Outdoors the Dutch Mountain was returning to the tour and the results would undoubtedly live up to all expectations you see the Peloton was so full of dopers with big cojones that we saw a brilliant show every single day this day was no different the Breakaway of the day was formed by two classic teams from this gallic round there was the Italian mg Rider Nicola Lodi and the Estonian Casino Rider Larry house they Julie built a lead of more than four minutes but surprise surprise it wasn't Telecom leading the bunch as they approached the book was on it was Marco pantani's mercantoni Uno the Italian had been wanting to prove All Season that he was close to his 1994 level with great results in the Arden and the tour of the Basque country but then a crash and injury in the Giro had left him in doubt again however pontani had something that other Riders of his generation didn't have he was a Maverick and he wanted to win again he had to win again he had been beaten by Jan Ulrich so far and although he had one on this mountain in 1995 no one really knew if he would ever reach his highest level again Telecom saw the move Telecom didn't Panic they even collaborated with the mercatony team to catch the two escapees at the foot of the pass now as you might Guess The Climb would be at Ulta campes 1996 beastly speeds right from the bottom the first to jump out was a crazy hide Cedric versur in a tour where he was continuing to prove and fly the flag a clean sweep for credible cyclists but he was quickly gobbled up by the hungry Festina the dangerous Narco flat owner Pascal ervay said an absolutely insane Pace on those early slopes leaving only the roosters at the head of the group and this in a tour where IPO abuse was at an all-time high Ulrich took the lead as in his days as a gregario and on his wheel were only vironk a very remarkable Casa Grande Reese and pantani with a team cap on his shiny heads Ole's Pace was not spectacular and this meant that several riders came up from behind but when pantani noticed that the Spaniard escartine was coming into the group he accelerated by holding the drops and dancing it was pantani's first attack of the tour no doubt the Italian medicines had done him a power of good on the rest day and after his great time trial he decided to open up on one of his favorite mountains only we all right can Reese followed him but when the Italian was attacking in those days it was perhaps best not to try to follow him because he'd only end up exploding but the doping charge was so massive so gross that well all these Riders had the guts to follow the bull man the other great bold guy the old aging gave no support to the yellow Jersey and soon ended up dropping away after a few meters like the ballast he was becoming pantani was making a comeback and proving that when he was fit he could have been the main Contender for the 96 Tour de France and well even for the 97 Edition elephantino as Wars declared that he was actually preparing to weigh yellow the following year and he wanted to see the strength of his generational mates when the road got steeper and the results were going swimmingly virong soon called it quits just a few minutes after Reese and even Yan struggled to catch bantani's wheel the Italian literally saw the opportunity to return the torture of oculus and he did it in the way he knew best without looking back and without asking for any help at all the German was being beaten for the first time in this tour and as he reached a hairpin band his weaknesses began to show he was finally yielding he was not an invincible machine and what's more he had sinned due to ambition and had failed to appreciate Marco pantani's powers in the mountains a mistake that the dim-witted but powerful German would repeat over the years and the yellow Jersey wasn't having a bad climb either in fact he was pulling further and further ahead of Risha virank his Chaser in the GC and supposedly a better climber than the German but the reality is that the Italian polytoxicomaniac was putting on one of his great shows in the mountains and in the face of that there was no one at that time even close to matching that kind of performance the sweaty Ulrich was surprised he was tired for the first time there was pain on his young freckled face etched in so deep pantani on the other hand was in a rage he was elated to receive the Applause of the fans and to feel his legs pumping IPO at over 200 beats oh yes the bald-headed right across the Finish Line as the winner and broke the record for the climb with an impressive time of 37 minutes and 35 seconds an average of over 6.3 watts per kilo This Record has not been beaten to this day and remember those bikes weighed well considerably more than the current ones and pantani wasn't in the best form of his sporting career and although it was a practically flat stage up to the foot of the Alp it was all being run off at an absolutely criminal insane pace this was a Triumph that could only be explained with drugs now as well as ulrich's excellent second place 47 seconds behind a rabid Italian bironk was almost a minute and a half behind and the rest well the rest practically didn't matter on that day Mercato Berg and Roberto Conte in the top 10 of the stage proving that they had prepared as a unit's very very well for the outdoors this is a client that will undoubtedly go down in history but don't worry friends there are still many many more Alps to come in the 97 tour the 14th stage of the tour was the shortest of that Edition oh dear 148 kilometers but it was perhaps the hardest of all with three passes exceeding 20 kilometers three passes that were very hard passes such as the Glendon the Madeleine and the courchevel now if this tour was the most dope in history it was because of stages like this one and all thanks to teams like Festina who despite being far behind in the general classification they decided to use all their fireworks intravenously to give us a show worthy of the Roman gladiatorial fights already on the first slopes of the glandol don't know who sells boys peddled as if their Partners were in bed with other people they were totally enraged they destroyed the Peloton blowing it to pieces and leaving it just 25 Riders strong and this halfway through the pass eight of which were Festina all watchmakers except the Finnish rats although several kalmie Riders like happy Gonzalez or hanum when a horror tried solo breaks they were quickly absorbed by those wild hyenas dressed in dark blue and whites it was a pace that caused Marco pantani himself who had won the day before to be left behind elephantino declared that he was feeling ill with bronchitis but seeing that no mercatoni who would perform so well the day before could even stay with him we have to surmise at the breakfast doses hadn't entered well into the body of the future Pirates even Alana was performing better than the bald man that day which was certainly not a good sign now when close to the top du foe Brusha and elvay accelerated to make it easier for the wrong to pick up those Mountain points Casa Grande and especially Ulrich decided to follow them in a rather unwise move on the Germans Parts they crested with a 12-second lead over the bunch and Festina team decided to move forward with their totally doped tactics Yan took the first two corners of The Descent badly because he was carrying a bag of Refreshments in his mouth and he lost the wheel to the four Festina and Casa Grande he was unable to make up the Lost ground the Festina Riders were obviously getting along swimmingly and they were already more than a minute ahead of the group containing Rhys and Alano while Ulrich of course was stuck between the two groups sweating like a chicken and getting all that air in his face on the uphill terrain the non-too bright German was proving that although he was a Marvel in Brute Force he wasn't very smart tactically at a time when the little earpieces and orders from directors still didn't reach the Riders so well Rhys was telling godafruit to try and stop Jan as soon as possible since they were a hundred kilometers to go and he would surely pay for the efforts he was making if he went on alone he knew that on the radio brochure and Airway were working like mules on the flat between passes to increase the Gap building it to more than a minute and a half it was on that flat section that Ulrich finally realized there was no point in trying to go after Festina on his own and it was far better to get support from his teammates bolts touchnig and Reese on the Madeline up front area gave way on the first ramps of the Alpine Colossus but dufo continued to tap out an imposing pace behind touchnigan Boats were doing the same until they could take no more and now it was finally big be honest turn to finally work for the yellow jersey and a beautiful full speed chase of the very long medal impasse began the Bold Dane had finally got the preparation rights he had already spoken to and daughter on the phone and yes darling I'm sure that I will leave my wife stranded in the mansion in herning and so he wanted to return the many favors that Ulrich had given him over the last couple of years his Pace was so beastly that only Ulrich and escar team managed to keep up with him and so it came to pass that there was a Chase between two trios where the Festina were losing time to the angry Great Dane Miron had to work with dufo because the pace wasn't high enough and the doped Casa Grande was simply sitting on Wheels perhaps looking for an opportunity for a crafty stage win in just seven kilometers Rhys reduced the Gap to 49 seconds and behind pantani tried to recover overtaking Alano but already two minutes behind the Festina group Reese was slowly getting closer and as he passed the South Francois along from station the doped fear honk left his teammate behind to ride on solo to the summits the exhibition of race number one was epic he wasn't only looking to help yanel Rick he was fighting for a place on the podium in Paris and he wanted for Telecom the first two places just like last year and so he crossed only 20 seconds behind the Frenchman after having released Casa Grande first and then do full later and escartine was suffering like a dog to follow the Telecom Duo but it was still the best day for kelmay in that tour dufo was 34 seconds behind Casa Grande a minute and a half and then pantani lattenberger Lino and Jimenez were four minutes behind the beating that Rhys had given his Rivals was historic and histrionic on The Descent Ulrich was still nervous about what had happened on the glondon and Rhys had to slow the pace which allowed dufo to rejoin for his part virank was already exhausted the criminal effort made by him and his team since the beginning of the stage was taking its toll and he was constantly asking for water to drink in a style similar to Floyd Landis and mausi perhaps that's why at the end of The Descent and despite increasing the lead over Telecom on the flat terrain to kosoval Richard the lionheart threw in the towel after the legendary stage and all the chaos heat caused he waited for Telecom Rhys had made it and even went so far as to convince dufo to work with him perhaps reminding the Swiss on the Pamplona stage that he'd given him in 1996 and thus the two Festina and Telecom writers increased the Gap over Casa Grande pantani olano and all the others the leading quintet arrived United at the foot of kosoval shortly after the start of the climb the timorous ascartine made the first ever recorded attack in the Tour de France at last he dared to get some air in his face but the kelmy Caballero was quickly jumped by dufo and Rhys from behind and before long it was the guy protecting his bald head from the Relentless son who was launching his attack and dufo was completely eliminated at the start of the pass and already they were attacking each other like there was no tomorrow this was high quality racing this was high quality doping dear brothers when Reese was caught Ulrich decided to take revenge for the scare at the beginning of the day and decided to lift the pace bironk was the only one who could respond quickly recent escartine arrived later and as soon as they did the Spaniard again launched a brick without looking back Reese didn't have the strength for the Chase and the man with a nose stuck to his nose was looking for a win that could perhaps be given to him but Ulrich wanted everything for everything and quickly caught up with vironk unfortunately for the man of the day Reese couldn't take it anymore and he was slowly fading seeing this escorting kept working towards personal success but his dreams were soon shattered when Richard virank attacked in a beastly manner on the hardest slopes of Kosovo Ulrich followed with tremendous ease sat in the saddle an escar team was left behind with Rhys for company behind pantani olano luttenberger Conte Jimenez had caught up with Casa Grande but the Gap was unbridgeable ahead Ulrich made a powerful counter-attack out of Revenge a number 11 caught him with some difficulty it was clear that virank was already at his limits and that he wouldn't be able to leave Ulrich behind and so the French Court Jester decided to talk to the German as he climbed alongside him he asked him to win the stage in exchange for no more Bastille early attacks like today's and the non-tube right Olay gave in to a promise to empty words and well a little bit of pocket money for beer and prostitutes the German followed the Frenchman's wheel all the way to the finish line and virong tried to panic those eager French fans who worshiped him he tried to convince them that he was fighting toe-to-toe with the German with backward glances and a ridiculous Twitchy Sprint that went on challenged by Ulrich the red polka dot Jersey crossed the Finish Line with his finger raised indicating that he was number one a classic bravado display from a guy who had actually bought that stage for 50 000 French francs a guy who doped himself by swelling EPO from The Leftovers of his teammates like a pig however from here we applaud him for the Magnificent show he gave us a show that was denied for decades once the U.S postal and Sky trains took over ascartoon had released an exhausted Reese and crossed the Finish Line third at 47 seconds while the Great Dane was overtaken at the barriers by dufo both being approximately one minute and 20 seconds behind the winner on the final climb pantani had obviously had a much better lunch than breakfast and he recovered almost two minutes to finish sixth at 3 minutes and 6 seconds Casa Grande came in 30 seconds later and then the disastrous Alano all is with Jimenez protecting him was 50 seconds behind the bald Italian this stage had been brutal and differences with the rest of the Riders they were more than shocking the organization had to increase the time limit because up to 93 men including Laurel jaliber and Frank vonton Brook had crossed 37 minutes behind the winner Rhys moved up to third place in the GC 11 minutes behind Ulrich and ahead of pantani but the joy was short-lived from the doped bald Rider from Jutland there was still an Alpine stage to go 208 kilometers between crossover and mozine where climbs such as the quaffrey the Colombia and especially the zoo plan with its classic dangerous descent near the end the Riders have been riding now for three days continuously hard riding and so at first they took this day more calmly in fact the only Brave rider was the doped Laurel shallow bear who again showed his Courage by attacking almost from the start and alone he reached the top of the clafri but again the Tour de France was stronger than him and on say who couldn't find the devastating pace of 1995 under their pedals and Jaja was caught on the ascent of the Columbia air thanks to an incredible effort from Festina who never seemed to run out of batteries there we only experience bironk's classic acceleration to back the mountain points there wasn't any show like the previous day despite the difficulty and despite the passes today the cyclists were disappointing the fans who wanted more Carnage from these dirty dopas in a small attack jumped fdj's crybaby Stefan earlo and the Ferrari eyes Gringo Kevin Livingston they arrived in the lead at the foot of the shoe plan but they were quickly absorbed by the bunch and this time it wasn't Festina who were understandably exhausted after the previous day's exhibition today's work came from Telecom Udo bolts imposed a very strong Pace that left the group in pieces with Ulrich Rhys the honk pantanisberg escartine Casa Grande Jimenez Lauren Rule and the dope Ferrari Rider Bobby julick when the hardest part of the climb was reached Marco pantani attacked as always oh so brave on this kind of stage and on a pass that really was as Italian as the Jew plan virank seeing himself without dufo and Russia and his Trusted Man he then jump on the wheel of the mercatony rider and so Telecom took responsibility they were the Defenders defending the third place of the bald Dane in the GC however Reese's Pace was no longer what it had been the previous day and the man with the operated ears was already 40 seconds ahead of the group of roosters it was then that virong decided to attack and behind him again Janel Rick the Frenchman's intention wasn't to drop the Telecom Rider since he had bought him off it was instead to catch pantani and win the stage but the move was too late a new Fiasco for Veron could put his entire team to work so the pantani could finally reap the rewards of success now a skilled downhill Rider like the mercatoni rider wasn't going to be caught by the wrong and he crossed the Finish Line Victorious regaining his Podium place that he lost the day before came in one minute and 17 seconds later and then julik saberg Casa Grande and escar team were almost two minutes behind and then Reese came in exhausted two minutes and six seconds behind the big loser of the day was Lauren dufo who lost 11 minutes to pantani and any chance of finishing in the top five evaporated largely thanks to vironk's absurd tactic of catching gel a bear Ulrich was still the outstanding leader but the difficulty of this tour had no limits and there would be of course even more action on the following day the 16th stage reached Swiss terrain to the Delight of the yellow Jersey after 181 kilometers between Morzine and Freiburg with a tough climb halfway up the colder almost 20 kilometers at an average gradient of 6.66 infernal although a breakaway at the start of the day saw doped gumshoe Frank vondenbrook and doped Italian veteran John Luca pierreborn the show began on the aforementioned climb the honorees had overdone it with the EPO vials on the day of the Madeleine and the old Champions started to get diarrhea and his wrinkled starving stomach he had to stop to take a dump like Tom de Mulan would do 20 years later and the moment was seized by pantani's mercatoni who wanted to eliminate the Dane from their fight for the final Podium Piazza Berg and Roberto Conte massacred the Peloton leaving just them pantani vironk Dufour ervay Ulrich Boltz Jimenez escartine and Casa Grande Reese was sick sweating like a chicken in an oven what hadn't happened to him in otakam the year before was now taking its toll he was a victim of the fireworks that were tearing his body apart a kilometer and a half from the summit it was pontani himself who accelerated and virank was brave enough to jump on his wheel but not Ulrich he wanted to protect Rhys with this constant Nanny complex and he was also learning not to jump for every attack the two escapees topped out with just one minute and 50 seconds over pantania vironk two minutes over the leaders group and five minutes and 10 seconds over the fading Biana Reese Ulrich lost his fear of the descents and caught up with the duo of pantania vironk until they all joined the lead catching up with the escapees even Alana's bernesto came up behind taking advantage of the imaginable work of the always well-doped bielitas casero and tricky Beltran Alano's faithful teammates had kept this man in the top five of the GC when he was not even one of the best 30 climbers of that tour and now they work together with the mercatoni to increase the Gap over Reese's group until freebork still it was a nice duel on the flats as Biana Reese decided to buy casino and big mats make them work for him together with the rubberbanks of the Austrian rap failure the strongest Riders were undoubtedly in front and the group of 23 went for the Sprint Victory and there the Festina team went for the wrong Sprint win but it was the surprise increase of Mahjong an fdj Hustler who pulled off an incredible win ahead of London Brooke and vironk a victory that allowed him to continue living off cycling until his 40th birthday although he never again reached the heights that he did in this crazy 1997 tour Reese arrived foaming at the mouth and trailing chocolate from behind more than six minutes a drift of the rest of the favorites his Podium chances had literally gone to [ __ ] the white out had been outrageous and according to Bianna himself he felt as if he was 65 years old but the best for us and the worst for him was still to come now the high mountains were finally over seven practically criminal days that had made this tour such a magnificent show but there were still stages left and in these the Festina team showed that they were playing at an absolutely brutal chemically assisted level and the first of them with a finish in Colmar almost 219 kilometers a large number of riders escaped with several classic antagonists from this tour Javier Pascal Rodriguez that was the winner the day before moljan the Belgian Pharisee the Swiss Commons end or the Ukrainian pugilist uchakov all of them tried to win solo but with three kilometers to go Australian Neil Stevens of Festina jumped out of the gates and with such a powerful Pace on the flat that it seemed he'd worked for absolutely nothing for virank in all the previous Mountain days it was fresh as a daisy in over his head he rode to the Finish Line doing the baby soccer cradling celebration laughing in the knowledge of the tremendous chemistry with which the friendly and charismatic kangaroo was playing and then there was a group just seconds behind and ulrich's mother came to see her son almost as a tour winner and give him all her love and affection in a totally surreal image to this day but one that made it clear of the character of the spoiled and childish much more interesting was the next stage in the French voge the 175 kilometers finishing in mumbbellia with four second category Mountain climbs that was the Gaba schweer the grand Balon Del sassy and the Ballon Dal SAS along the way and already on the first Mountain Pass Festina decided to go for it just like they had on the day of the Madeleine and with an absolutely criminal Pace they tore the Peloton apart on The Descent a group of 15 Riders formed at the front a group including Lauren jaliber Java Jimenez Telecom tochnig and the Festina Riders ervay brush Aaron rule they quickly caught up and reached the ground ballon Dal SAS in the lead but while in the front the Festina worked behind them with dufo and Stevens looking to isolate Ulrich in every way the war was on soon the German was left with only boats for company as Reese had not yet recovered despite not being a very hard climb they saw all these problems and both be wrong dufo and pantani attacked the GC leader who was undoubtedly going through the worst moments in this Tour de France the chemical games that finished with Rhys and that possibly put Ulrich who had a big advantage over his rivals on the back foot when it came to doping like an extreme mule as a result the group of Festina and pantani topped out with a 23-second lead and more than a hundred kilometers to go and Ulrich was all alone now now it may seem like a joke nowadays but really the yellow Jersey was in danger in that situation but he had an unexpected Ally Alana's bernesto were trailing and they worked with bolts and Ulrich to bring them closer to the group before the unsru climb smelling blood the always Savvy Marco pantani decided to send a message to team Telecom and he attacked halfway up the pass taking with him vironk Jimenez Casa Grande and a surprising Alano and then irve escartine Rodriguez julik and Didier rule Ulrich was empty and he was left with the company of just bolts no longer the Superman who humiliated everyone in the Pyrenees with nearly 600 watts of average power Festina were pulling it off taking a lead after The Descent of the pass 47 seconds I was 72 kilometers to go and being three men while behind Jan had only the support of bolts oh dear in addition virong had pantani and the bonesto riders in the leading group and they were still the Ballon Dal SAS to go it was great terrain for an ambush for a bank robbery and even if they couldn't take the yellow Jersey away from Ulrich they could at least make things very very difficult indeed the only thing the Festina team had to do was to work as they had done so far to increase the gap on the flats and get the rest to cooperate but the Clowny she mature childish virank didn't go that far he limited himself to insulting his fellow escapees looking like a lifeguard waving his arms and complaining that the others weren't collaborating while he had ervay and ruse scratching their balls bernesto had already collaborated with the mercatoni on The Calder Lacroix stage to put Reese out of the race and they would certainly be happy to do so now to put Ulrich on the canvas but festino are too Snappy too smart too cocky with their threats and they got no cooperation whatsoever all of which cause virong to get as angry as a little boy without his Nintendo 64 for Christmas it's not fair and so he ordered airvale ruse to attack while the rest of the team looked on in amazement at the stupid thing they'd just done after these absurd discussions bolts quickly arrived with Ulrich to the group and Ulrich stopped leaving the two festinas out front wholesale were not Tire of making a fool of himself and he ordered Airway to stop when he was 50 seconds ahead of ruse thus Didier was left alone at the head of the race and the rest of the favorites just let him go gaining a sufficient advantage to give him a rather absurd stage win obviously a very happy moment for him but very sad for cycling lovers who were left without a final show of dopas because of the circus antics of the rather pitiful virank even the bald Reese thanks to the work of his doped compatriot skibby Sorensen and minehart returned to the main group coming in five minutes behind the day's winner the egotistical Miron could hear had the chance the only chance in his career to win a Tour de France and he would have conquered it in an epic way displaying courage to the cameras and being a national hero but his excessive ego prevented him from Gaining the victory even though he was doped to the gills the following year he'd cry like a baby again this time after being expelled in the Festina Affair pathetic this tour was so spectacular that even the unimportant stages were a spectacle flat data Dijon and the group allowed a large Breakaway to play for the victory off the escapees two went for the win telecoms German Jens Hepner and tvm's Dutchman Bart voskamp voskamp had already made this move in 1996 with Telecom Rider and in onday and he took the win by taking advantage of the German dopas efforts the two arrived together at the finish line of voskamp accelerated for the win just as he had done the previous year but Hepner knew him well and quickly closed on him voskamp pulled an uchakov and quickly changed direction to prevent Aetna from overtaking but Abner perhaps out of Revenge responded with an absurd headbutt in true calf Style the run into the Finish Line was rather comical if not pitiful heads were bumping and the Dutchman was pushing the German as the presumed winner it was like some bizarre matrimonial fight of your 50-something uncles and well we shouldn't really be surprised that both Riders were relegated and Mario travisoni of mercantoni Uno sprinted in the chasing group was awarded the win the judges were smart if uchakov had a win taken away from him for much less well they had to do the same with these dirty dopas but the show of this tour had been worth it and there was still one last show left the time trial at Disneyland Paris the popular theme park for Children and Families was experiencing a practically flat 63 kilometer time trial where power would be the key in determining the winner and while the drug-loving party animal and Lantern rules of the tour Philippe gomo set the best time with one hour 17 minutes and 9 seconds the honoree started a show that really should have seen him hired as director of fun activities at Disneyland the little ones at home were already having a great laugh when the boldane fell before climbing the start ramp hitting his leg on the Jerry can that he'd prepared for the course that fall caused him to go out on his spare bike because he'd broken the rear Mech on the first and then after several kilometers of losing time he decided to get on his powerful Ghost Bike the reigning Tour de France Champion was already satisfied when he got back on that million dollar bike but unfortunately for him he had a flat rear wheel he started off again after the mechanic's help and then the chain came off because he'd asked the mechanic to remove the rear Mech from the chainring Furious but at the same time doing it for the kids making them happy oh they were so glad they watched this spectacle Biana grabbed the bike and threw it into some surrounding Farm crops more than 50 000 Euros from 1997 flying through the air and Rudy pevenage didn't even dare approach the frustrated bald man from earning after several minutes he got back on the bike Abraham Alano riding the evolution of India rhine's Espada was having a brilliant day despite setting off six minutes behind Reese he managed to pass race number one with tremendous ease in the humiliation on becoming of someone who'd been suffering like a dog throughout the entire Tour de France the bonesto leader had recovered and at least was in great shape for the flat terrain overtaking all his Rivals including the day's favorites Jan Ulrich Olay had arrived at the end of the tour with little strength and close to suffering a white out the day before he couldn't handle Alano and he lost 30 seconds to the Spaniard at the intermediate check although he was beating everyone the former world champion had started the day more than six minutes behind third place Marco pantani so although the chasantico rider lost more than three and a half minutes to the Spaniard he was still assured of third place Alano crossed the Finish Line with a fantastic time of one hour 15 minutes and 57 seconds more than a minute ahead of gomung and waiting for the first three Riders of that tour would there be any surprises pantani was not on his home turf and he lost 4 minutes and 35 to the Spaniard with the Space Age helmets virank was struggling not to be overtaken by Ulrich and he made a good time for his ability three minutes and 32 seconds behind the Spaniards the yellow Jersey was just behind him but still 45 seconds behind the Spaniard who was at least allowed to win a stage despite finishing almost 16 minutes behind the German in fourth place overall Olay had beaten everyone he was almost 10 minutes ahead of virank a gap that hasn't been seen since Seventh Place Reese had lost more than 26 and a half minutes to his teammates gomon was four and a half hours behind the winner in the show in Paris on the last day Nicola minali took his second stage win ahead of zabel who had bagged the tour's green jersey for the second year in a row Ulrich climbed happily onto the podium euphoric after fulfilling the dream of a lifetime and everyone was convinced that he was going to be the new Miguel injury winning numerous consecutive Tour de France be wrong finished second and promised more war with the doctor Festina next year but some evil drowned arms cut his dreams short at customs in 1998 pantani meanwhile returned to the ranks of the elites with his third place and two stage wins in the mountains he was the only Rider who had truly beaten Ulrich on the road unfortunately for the German his vices which began at the parties we saw at the beginning of the video would put an end to his career a career which ended with a great record yes but far from the one which he promised in that July 1997 Ulrich began eating industrial quantities of pastries and drinking like Homer Simpson and by December he was already 20 kilos overweight and in an absolutely pitiful condition how Olay came to lose the 1998 tour and how doping came to destroy a complete edition of the Tour de France well we'll have to wait till the next video to see that won't we subscribe to the channel and stay tuned and of course as always we'll see you in the next one

Channel: Cycling Highlights

Views: 140,517

Keywords: cycling, jan ullrich, jan ullrich 1997, jan ullrich andorra, jan ullrich arcalis, bjarne riis, abraham olano, richard virenque, marco pantani, pantani, virenque, olano, pantani alpe d'huez, pantani alpe dhuez, pantani record, ullrich andorra, ullrich arcalis, ullrich itt, jan ullrich itt, lance armstrong, old cycling, 90s cycling, doping, doping in cycling, jan ullrich doping, bjarne riis doping, richard virenque courchevel, festina doping, cycling stories, ullrich 1997

Id: R3m5cWRWCyE

Length: 88min 16sec (5296 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2023