The 2000 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 1 to 23 July, and the 87th edition of the Tour de France. There was no overall winner following a vacating of results by the United States Anti-Doping Agency announcement on 24 August 2012 that they had disqualified Lance Armstrong from all his results since 1 August 1998, including his seven Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005; the Union Cycliste Internationale confirmed the result.
The Tour started with an individual time trial in Futuroscope (not an official prologue because it was longer than 8 km) and ended, traditionally, in Paris. The distance travelled was 3663 km (counter-clockwise around France). The Tour passed through Switzerland and Germany.
Before the race started, there were several favourites: Armstrong, after his 1999 Tour de France victory; Jan Ullrich, having won the 1997 Tour de France, finishing second in the 1996 and 1998 tours, and not entering the 1999 Tour due to an injury; and 1998 Tour winner Marco Pantani. Richard Virenque finished 8th place in the 1999 Tour despite bad preparation, and for the 2000 edition he was considered an important rider. Fernando Escartín, Bobby Julich, Alexander Vinokourov and Alex Zülle were also considered contenders.
Teams
17 teams were automatically selected based on their UCI rankings. In addition, three teams were given wildcards by organisers of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). Each of these 20 teams sent 9 cyclists, for a total of 180: Before the start, each rider had to do a health check. Three riders failed this health check; Sergei Ivanov, from Farm Frites; Rossano Brasi, from ; Andrei Hauptman, from ; all because they had a hematocrit value above 50%. The race thus started with 177 cyclists.
The teams entering the race were:
Qualified teams
Invited teams
Route and stages
The highest point of elevation in the race was at the summit of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 15.
Race overview
The first stage was won by British cyclist David Millar, with Lance Armstrong only 2 seconds behind in second place. Of the other pre-race favourites, Laurent Jalabert, Jan Ullrich and Alex Zülle all lost less than 20 seconds. Virenque, Vinokourov and Escartin lost around 1:30 on Armstrong, while Marco Pantani lost more than 2 minutes. The next two stages were sprinter stages, both won by Tom Steels, not changing much in the overall classification. Stage 4, a team time trial, was won by the ONCE cycling team, and after that stage the top 10 included 8 ONCE cyclists, including leader Laurent Jalabert.
In stage 6, 12 cyclists broke away and kept a 7:49-minute lead, which shook up the classification. Alberto Elli, one of the escapees, took over the yellow jersey.
In stage 10, the Tour entered the mountains. The stage, which finished at Hautacam, was won by Spaniard Javier Otxoa, but Lance Armstrong finished second and took the yellow jersey, with Ullrich in second place, more than 4 minutes behind. The 12th stage, finishing on Mont Ventoux, was won by Marco Pantani, but Lance Armstrong finished second with the same time, so Armstrong increased his lead. Stage 15 was also won by Pantani, but again Armstrong gained time on second-place Ullrich, who was 7:26 behind. On the 16th stage, Armstrong had a bad day and lost time. Ullrich's gap shrunk to 5:37.
On stage 17, Erik Dekker won his third stage of the Tour. Stage 19, an individual time trial, was the last chance to change the general classification, although it was very unlikely that time trial specialist Armstrong would lose his 5:37 lead. Armstrong eventually went on to win the stage, and secured his Tour win. He maintained his lead in the final two stages.
Doping
Subsequent to Armstrong's statement to withdraw his fight against United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) charges, on 24 August 2012, the USADA said it would ban Armstrong for life and stripped him of his record seven Tour de France titles. Later that day it was confirmed in a USADA statement that Armstrong was banned for life and would be disqualified from any and all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to 1 August 1998, including forfeiture of any medals, titles, winnings, finishes, points and prizes. On 22 October 2012, the Union Cycliste Internationale endorsed the USADA sanctions, and decided not to award victories to any other rider or upgrade other placings in any of the affected events.