2004 жылғы Тур де Франс: жеңіссіз жарыс және допинг дауылы

The 2004 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 3 to 25 July, and the 91st edition of the Tour de France. It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong originally won the event, the United States Anti Doping Agency announced in August 2012 that they had disqualified Armstrong from all his results since 1998, including his seven Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005; the Union Cycliste Internationale confirmed the result. The event consisted of 20 stages over Armstrong had been favored to win, his competitors seen as being German Jan Ullrich, Spaniards Roberto Heras and Iban Mayo, and fellow Americans Levi Leipheimer and Tyler Hamilton. A major surprise in the Tour was the performance of French newcomer Thomas Voeckler, who unexpectedly won the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification in the fifth stage and held onto it for ten stages before finally losing it to Armstrong. This Tour saw the mistreatment of Filippo Simeoni by Armstrong on Stage 18. The route of the 2004 Tour was remarkable. With two individual time trials scheduled in the last week, one of them the climb of Alpe d'Huez, the directors were hoping for a close race until the end. For the first time in years, the mountains of the Massif Central made an appearance.

During this Tour de France the men who were delivering the drugs to riders had names like Alibaba, Asterix, Obelix and Motoman. Before the Tour started, British favourite David Millar was in Biarritz, France with David Brailsford, the head coach of Great Britain for the upcoming Athens Olympics, when French police entered the restaurant they were dining in and forced Millar back to his flat and then arrested him on suspicion of doping. He was left off the Olympic team because of the incident, would likely face termination from Team and was going to be brought before a French court to answer questions regarding doping in cycling. Team Cofidis had only begun riding again in May, after a self imposed suspension to conduct an internal doping investigation of their own team.

The opening prologue was in Liège Belgium and was 6.1 kilometres long. Fabian Cancellara, riding the first stage of his first Tour, won the stage and therefore the first yellow jersey. Francesco Moser, Dietrich Thurau and Chris Boardman are among other riders to have done this to begin their career. Lance Armstrong finished in 2nd two seconds behind and was therefore the highest GC contender. The closest contenders to him were Levi Leipheimer and Jan Ullrich. The two riders who defeated Armstrong in the recently held 2004 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré were Iban Mayo and Tyler Hamilton, both of whom were considered potential challengers. Hamilton finished +0:16 behind Armstrong and Mayo was +0:19 slower. Gilberto Simoni of Team , who had won two of the previous four Giro's and podiumed five of the previous six had a tough day and finished +0:42 behind Cancellara. This Tour would end up being the best finish of his career, but in part due to this tough start he would not be a threat to the elite riders for the remainder of the race. Stage 1 was a flat stage that was run entirely in Belgium and not long into the stage it began to rain heavily which would eventually be responsible for many crashes. 37 year old elite sprinter Mario Cipollini went down and had a difficult time getting back to the main pack and was not among the riders fighting for the stage win. The final breakaway was caught with 4 km to go and the stage was won by Jaan Kirsipuu of ahead of Robbie McEwen of and Thor Hushovd of During this stage Lance Armstrong wore the green jersey for the only time in his career, being placed 2nd in the points competition behind Cancellara. During stage 2 the weather wasn't as severe but there were still several crashes which resulted in the abandonment of a few riders. Marco Velo crashed violently, broke his collarbone and when he hit the ground landed on a glass bottle which cut his other shoulder open. He would continue the race but only survived a few more stages before calling it quits. A breakaway of five riders eventually went clear and Team tried controlling the escape in a manner similar to what they had done during the Giro a few months earlier where they were able to get sprinter Alessandro Petacchi in position to win an astonishing nine stages. They also were intent on protecting the yellow jersey of Cancellara as long as they could, however they were not able to control the Tour as they had done at the Giro and even though they were in good position as the end of the stage neared Cancellara had lost his yellow jersey and Petacchi finished 8th in the sprint. McEwen had won the sprint, attacking with 250 meters to go as Hushovd took 2nd place, but also moved into the yellow jersey as a result of the bonus seconds he won. This made him the first rider from Norway to lead the Tour de France. Stage 3 would begin in Waterloo, Belgium and end just over the border in Wasquehal in Hauts de France. For the first time since the 1985 Tour de France a stage which included sections traversed during Paris–Roubaix was included. There were some sections of cobbles, but it was limited to only about four kilometres in two segments. A two rider breakaway of Jens Voigt of Team and Bram de Groot of Team eventually got a gap of nearly seven minutes before it started coming down. The pavé did cause some flat tires and crashes, including GC favorite Iban Mayo of , who crashed hard, shredding some of his uniform and costing him so much time he likely lost any chance of competing for victory. Christophe Moreau, GC rider for Team Credit Agricole who had finished in the top ten twice in recent years also got caught out in the peloton split and lost nearly four minutes. Thor Hushovd was stuck back in this group meaning he would likely lose his yellow and green jerseys. Roberto Heras of Team , who was an instrumental Lieutenant of Armstrong in previous Tour victories and himself a multi time champion of the Vuelta a España, also had a tough time through the cobbles but he was able to fight his way back to the elite group. The two man breakaway was eventually caught but Jens Voight was able to finish in the group containing the GC riders. The stage was won by Jean Patrick Nazon of Team AG2R who bested Erik Zabel of in the sprint. Robbie McEwen finished 3rd but moved into both the yellow and green jerseys. By stage 7 there had already been 100 riders who had gone down in crashes including most GC contenders. The stage saw a two rider breakaway remain out front until there were about 30 km to go. After that some elements of the peloton were trying to keep the race together while others tried breaking away for the stage win. Towards the end of the stage the powerful riding of Francisco Mancebo of Team Illes Balears was enough open a small gap ahead of the yellow jersey group. Filippo Pozzato of Fassa Bortolo, the youngest rider in the Tour at 22, and Iker Flores of Team Euskaltel were able to hold his wheel until the line where Pozzato pulled around an exhausted Mancebo for the win. In the GC Voekler's lead of +9:35 over Armstrong had not yet begun to come down. Armstrong led by +0:36 over Hamilton, the next closest contender not riding for US Postal. Mancebo jumped ahead of Ullrich and Julich with his late attack and was +0:43 behind Armstrong with Ullrich and Julich being the only other elites within a minute as Basso and Heras were within +2:00.

Stage 8 had four categorized climbs, all of which were Cat 3 or Cat 4 meaning the stage would likely be decided between a successful breakaway or a sprint finish if all escape attempts could be destroyed. Four riders eventually went away, but one of them Karsten Kroon got a flat and wasn't able to get a new tire in time to re acquire contact with the break. They would hold out until just under 10 km and around this same time a dog ran into the back half of the peloton and caused a crash. As the finish approached Bettini made a break for the line but was caught, and then Kim Kirchen made a break for it but Thor Hushovd was able to overpower everyone and take the decisive victory ahead of Kirchen, Zabel and McEwen. In the points competition McEwen reclaimed the Maillot Vert. Even though O'Grady, Zabel, Hushovd and Danilo Hondo were all within twenty points of the jersey, McEwen would not relinquish it for the rest of the race. The next day was the first rest day. Stage 9, just as the day before, saw many escape attempts early in the stage but none materialized. Eventually Iñigo Landaluze of Team and Filippo Simeoni of Team Domina Vacanze got a gap higher than +1:00 and were considered broken away. It is not known if Lance Armstrong was planning to ambush and humiliate Simeoni during this breakaway attempt, or if Armstrong was considering it petty revenge against Simeoni that could only be attempted if the race was well in hand. In regards to comments Simeoni made about Michele Ferrari. Simeoni and Landaluze extended their advantage considerably as Karsten Kroon tried his luck again, hoping to have better luck than yesterday. Kroon rode on his own for much of the stage, staying a few minutes ahead of the peloton, but not able to bridge the gap and join the other two escapees. When it became clear he would not catch them he pulled off to the side of the road, went to the bathroom to kill time until the peloton arrived, and then rejoined the pack. Meanwhile, Simeoni pulled hard for much of the stage, with Landaluze on his wheel. The pair held out all day but Simeoni was not going to allow Landaluze to come around him and steal the victory after he just did all the work so he stopped working as hard and just before the line the pair got swooped up by the sprinters operating at maximum speed. Simeoni and Landaluze finished inside the top 20 as McEwen won the day with Hushovd and O'Grady rounding out the podium. Stage 10 was Bastille Day and had eight categorized climbs with one of them being Cat 1 and a pair of Cat 2's meaning the polka dot jersey would likely change hands. Richard Virenque was attempting to break the record he shared with Lucien Van Impe and Federico Bahamontes by winning his 7th King of the mountains competition and he was the first rider to launch an attack. He was joined by Sylvain Chavanel, teammates with Voeckler on as well as Axel Merckx of Chavanel, like many riders before him was a young rider who was predicted to have a long and successful career. On this day he did not last long and it would end up being Virenque and Merckx who stayed away. Virenque eventually dropped Merckx and went on to win the stage by over +5:00 and take over the polka dot jersey from Paolo Bettini. The GC riders crossed together with no major changes among them, however with his successful attack Virenque moved into 4th some two and a half minutes ahead of Armstrong. At the end of the stage the always emotional Virenque dedicated the stage victory to two people very close to him who had died recently, his grandmother and Joel Chabiron, a team coach of many years who had also gone through the entire Festina affair with him. Stage 11 began much the same way as the previous stage with three riders eventually breaking free. David Moncoutié of Cofidis, Juan Antonio Flecha of Fassa Bortolo and Egoi Martínez of Euskaltel. This breakaway would stay away together all day and eventually be successful. Moucoutié was able to successfully attack Flecha and Martínez with just under 10 km to go. He soloed to victory just over two minutes ahead of the other two escapees. The peloton came across just under six minutes after Moucoutié with no major changes in the overall situation. He had a bad night, was urinating a colour close to black from all the dead red blood cells, had developed a fever and was nervous to the point he wondered if he might die in his sleep. He asked a team doctor to keep an eye on him while he tried to sleep that night. Luckily the fever broke and he woke up in the morning; and rode as hard as he could during the stage. Stage 13 would be more high mountains with a Cat HC mountaintop finish at Plateau de Beille. The race was making its closest approach to Basque Country so the fans were anticipated to be in the hundreds of thousands. 165 riders started the stage meaning 23 riders had abandoned so far. Tyler Hamilton would lose contact less than halfway through the stage and abandon the Tour citing lower back pain. This was his eighth Tour de France entry and the first time he abandoned. Following the stage Urs Freuler, the D. S. of commented to a Marblehead, Massachusetts magazine reporter, who was there to cover the hometown hero Tyler Hamilton, about Hamilton's withdrawal and because of it, the now dire future for the team for the remainder of the Tour, "Mentally he's 100%. The team morale was not that bad yesterday. Clear we lost the leader and didn't makethe podium, but I thinkthe guys here are goodguys and we change a little bit the strategy and we gonowto try to win a stage." Óscar Pereiro, a young domestique initially riding in support of Hamilton, now became the highest GC rider for Phonak and would end the Tour in 10th. Other abandons by this point in the Tour included Denis Menchov and last year's 5th place finisher Haimar Zubeldia. His teammate, Iban Mayo, would suffer tremendously during the stage to the point he got off his bike and told the team he was quitting. In the end Armstrong was the strongest with only Basso with him as he crossed the finish as the pair of Ullrich and Kloden crossed a few seconds later. Later that night Armstrong received death threats targeting him during the time trial the following day when 750,000 fans were expected on and around Alp d'Huez and crowd control would be, for all intents and purposes, impossible. During the 1986 Tour de France Greg LeMond, the only other American Tour winner, had to deal with similar threats during his first Tour victory. LeMond suffered from extreme paranoia because he also had to worry about his food being poisoned, his brakes being manipulated, his drug tests being altered, being attacked from within his own team and being pushed off his bike while riding through potentially hostile crowds; many of these warnings coming from the Tour Directeur himself confirming their validity. Armstrong did not have these additional food poisoning, bike manipulation, team rivalry or drug test concerns as severely, being as he had the complete support of US Postal and riders during this era had the protective base of the team bus. The ITT of stage 16 was held on Alpe d'Huez and would decide whether Basso would set up a final battle with Armstrong on stage 17 or if Armstrong would end the Tour right then and there. There were expected to be 750,000 fans in attendance and each rider would have to ride through the masses of humanity. The bottom half of the standings took to the course and the early times were set but as the top ranked riders started taking to the course the crowds became more unruly, aggressive, angry and excited as the day wore on and more people showed up and crowded their way alongside the road. Despite the conditions, including many riders being spat on and screamed at violently, Armstrong all but ended the Tour when he caught and then dropped Basso, even though Basso had started two minutes before him. Armstrong's time, at the time, was good enough for 2nd on the top 100 times at Alp d'Huez. Jan Ullrich finished 2nd on the stage, his time good enough for 7th all time. The previous year Armstrong defeated Ullrich by +1:01 in the closest of Armstrong's victories. Armstrong defeated Ullrich by +1:01 in the time trial and finished +2:33 ahead of Basso, who in reality rode a decent time trial considering he finished 8th. Kloden finished 3rd +1:41 behind. Wearing the green jersey Robbie McEwen rode a slow race and there was briefly worry he might miss the time cut and be thrown out of the race. When he realized he made it inside the time cut, he did a wheelie across the finish line. Armstrong now led Basso by just under four minutes and led Kloden by just over five. Both Ullrich and Azevedo jumped over Mancebo as Totschnig remained in 7th. Stage 17 was the final high mountain stage and finished at Le Grand Bornand. The Col du Glandon and Col de la Madeleine were the most difficult climbs to be dealt with. Virenque and Moreau went off in search of KOM points, although Virenque was the only rider with a chance of beating the GC riders for the polka dot jersey. Filippo Simeoni attacked as did Gilberto Simoni, Rasmussen, Merckx and several others but in the end it would be the GC elites to fight it out for the win. As the end of the stage neared it was clear that neither Basso, Kloden nor Ullrich had a chance at even making Armstrong nervous let alone threaten him. Floyd Landis did much of the work yet again for US Postal, as did Azevedo and Ruberia. Landis was the last domestique standing and this time he attacked off the front of the final elite group in an attempt to win the stage. Kloden, Basso and Ullrich would not allow it and saw to it he was chased down. Kloden then went for the stage win but Armstrong pounced and hunted him down and bested him at the line to take the stage win, again. In the young rider classification Vladimir Karpets had closed within a minute of Thomas Voeckler. In the overall situation Armstrong had over a +4:00 advantage on Basso, +5:00 on Kloden and +8:00 on Ullrich. Filippo Simeoni: was not a stranger to controversy prior to the stage 18 incident with Armstrong. The September 11 attacks happened during the first week of the 2001 Vuelta a España. Two weeks later Simeoni won a stage, and prior to the finish line he got off his bike, hoisted it above his head like a trophy and walked across the line. It is against the rules to do this, and there was question as to whether or not this was a tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in America. He rode for a few more years, winning the national championship of Italy in 2008. Like Levi Leipheimer he would face ridicule and bullying for being forced to testify by court order. Levi Leipheimer: rode for well over a decade and had top tier results in several grand tours putting him behind only LeMond and Armstrong among American riders in many respects. In 2010 he was forced, as a law abiding American citizen, to testify to a grand jury regarding what he knew of doping in cycling. He was received harshly in the cycling world, received threats from riders on opposing teams and even the team boss of his own team, Johan Bruyneel, saw to it that Team Radioshack did not re sign him