1996 Tour de France

Riis ends the Induráin era, in a win he later admitted was doped.

The 1996 Tour de France was the 83rd edition, held from 29 June to 21 July with a prologue, nineteen road stages, two individual time trials and a rest day on 10 July. The Dane Bjarne Riis won; in 2007 he admitted doping throughout 1993-1998 but remains the official winner and has said he has no regrets. The race ended Miguel Induráin's run of five straight wins: he caught bronchitis in the bad weather of the first week, was fined for taking drinks illegally, began losing time on stage 7 and finished eleventh without a stage win or a day in yellow, even as the route passed through his home town of Villava. Snow forced stage 9 from Val-d'Isère to Sestriere to be cut from 176 km to 46 km; Riis won it to open a 44-second gap on his Telekom teammate Jan Ullrich, who at 22 broke through and won the stage 20 time trial. Several Telekom riders later confessed to doping in this period.