1994 Tour de France

The 81st Tour de France was held from 2nd to July 24th 1994 and led it on 21 stages over 3978 km. It was attended by 189 racers participated in the tour, of which 117 were classified.

The tour was opposed driven clockwise, which means that the first high mountains of the Pyrenees and then the Alps were in the stage plan. Also, the Massif Central was on the program, the stage to Carpentras led about the infamous Mont Ventoux. The Tour guested for two days in England, there came the driver with the train through the newly built Euro tunnel. The enthusiasm on the island was enormous, estimated there were up to one million spectators on the roadside. Except for the prologue time trial two were provided, one of them on a flat road and the second to Avoriaz in the mountains of the Alps. In addition, a team time trial was held.

Favorites

Besides the winner of the last three years, Miguel Indurain, Tony Rominger was one of the big favorites for the race. Rominger drove 1993, a great tour, where he won three stages. He won just before the Tour and the Vuelta a España, the 1994 last time held in the spring. Since 1995, the Vuelta will be held in the fall. Contender for a podium finish were, among others Alex Zülle and Armand de Las Cuevas. The winner of the Giro d' Italia in 1994, Yevgeny Berzin, did not participate.

Race course

The finish line of the first stage to Armentieres was the scene of a terrible fall. At the roadside stood a distance policeman who made ​​a small step for a photo on the street. The Belgian Wilfried Nelissen hit with almost 70 km / h on the police officers, the hardest injured Laurent Jalabert, who crashed over the Danes. He then had several hours a facial surgery, Jalabert renounced in his further career in mass sprints and became the all-rounder.

The hour of the favorites hit as expected the first time trial to Bergerac, which won Induráin impressive. He distanced Rominger to just two minutes. Thereupon the Spaniards took over the lead in the overall standings. The first stage in the mountains began in the flat terrain of the Pyrenean foreland. The only difficulty was the final climb to Lourdes - Hautacam ( 1560 m). Induráin proposed in this rise to a uniform, very high speed, the only Luc Leblanc could follow, who also won this stage. Rominger, weakened by a stomach upset, lost over two minutes and on the following stage to Luz Ardiden - even three on the Spaniards. At the subsequent stage, he retired from the race. This paved the way for Induráin fourth Tour win in a row was free. As the only halfway serious contender Piotr Ugrumow proved, especially in the Alps. There he could win three days in a row Induráin time, causing him to second place in the overall standings. Indurain won on this tour with a lead of 5:39 minutes.

The stage to L' Alpe d' Huez ended Udo Bölts than others; this was the hitherto best placement of a German in this destination. 1997 Jan Ullrich was on his second tour victory at the famous " mountain of the Dutchman".

The stages

All teams and drivers

A: task during the stage, NA: non-runner to stage, S: Suspended / excluded timeouts: timeout