How it unfolded
The 1998 Tour had already collapsed before it began, after police found a stash of EPO and growth hormone in a Festina team car. The team was expelled mid-race, and as the police investigation continued, riders repeatedly climbed off their bikes mid-stage in protest. In the middle of this chaos came stage 15, 189 km over the Croix de Fer and the Galibier into Les Deux Alpes. As the temperature dropped and cold rain fell, Marco Pantani attacked on the Galibier. Yellow-jersey holder Jan Ullrich lost his rhythm in the cold, and the gap at the finish was roughly 9 minutes. Pantani took both the stage and the yellow jersey, and held it to Paris, having already won the Giro that June to complete cycling's eighth Giro-Tour double since Coppi. The following year he was excluded from the Giro while leading the race over blood-test values, and he died in 2004 at the age of 34.
Why it still matters
This stage symbolises a period when cycling held its most dramatic scenes and its darkest truths at the same time. The Festina affair led directly to the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency, national police involvement in doping cases, and later the biological passport. Pantani's Giro-Tour double stood as the last of its kind for 26 years, until Pogacar repeated it in 2024.