1997 Tour de France

The 84th Tour de France takes place from 5 to 27 July 1997, listed 21 stages over 3942 km.

Teams /

In the 1997 Tour de France were 22 teams at the start. Among the total of 198 riders there were 7 German, Swiss and 8 2 Austrians. 139 racers reached the finish in Paris and were classified.

→ See: Complete list of drivers field

Route

The tour was this time in the opposite direction; after a series of flat stages, it was first in the Pyrenees, then in the Alps. In addition, a mountain time trial in Saint- Étienne, and a stage was through the Vosges on the program. The final time trial on a flat track had Disneyland on the outskirts of Paris as a starting point and destination. Stage destinations outside France were provided in Andorra and Switzerland.

Race course

On the flat stages in particular shone Erik Zabel with three stage wins and Mario Cipollini with two hits. In addition, he wore the yellow jersey four days. In the fifth stage managed a breakaway: stage winner Cedric Vasseur took over the overall lead, which he would only release it again in the Pyrenees.

Among the favorites were among those who could drive out top rankings in previous years already: The Swiss Alex Zülle, second from 1995, which was, however, handicapped by a broken collarbone in the Tour de Suisse; Abraham Olano, last year's winner Bjarne Riis and his Telekom teammate Jan Ullrich. Although Marco Pantani and Richard Virenque were considered to be good climbers, but as a relatively modest time driver, so they had to pull less useful for the overall victory. Tony Rominger, duration favorites in recent years, appeared to the age of 36 now to have passed its peak. On one of the first flat stages, he was involved in a massive crash and had to abandon the race with broken collarbone. Jan Ullrich was initially intended only as a helper for his team leader Bjarne Riis, this classification was revised, however, in the course of the tour, as Riis could not meet the expectations and Ullrich, however, showed splendid constitution. In addition, Riis, who wanted to attack once had, the last time trial several times problems with his racing bike, so he threw this rage into the ditch.

On the 10th stage after Arcalis (Andorra ) Ullrich had gotten from the team management " free hand ". At the start of the final climb, he attacked from a top group out with all the favorites, from which no one could follow him. The German won the stage with 1:08 minutes ahead of Pantani and Virenque and could then put the yellow jersey. During the time trial in Saint- Étienne Ullrich won with a whopping three minutes ahead of the second placed previously started Virenque, he even overtook it. The following mountain stages could win Pantani and Virenque though, the time advantage in the overall standings to two could Ullrich but on the three stages even increase.

During the tour there was Ullrich twice a slightly threatening situation: once he lost on a mountain stage at a departure the connection and then waited to Bjarne Riis, who was able to drive him back to the top group forward. The second phase of weakness, he pointed to a stage through the Vosges, is the reminder of the " torture yourself, you pig " handed down, is said to have called out teammate Udo Bölts.

Ullrich won the Tour with the largest projection ( 9:09 minutes) since 1984. He is the only German to have won this round trip.

The stages

Jerseys in the itinerary

→ See: final results in the individual ratings

The table shows the support of the respective jerseys during each stage or the leaders of the respective Ranking in the evening of the previous day.