1999 Tour de France

The 1999 Tour de France was the 86th edition, held from 3 to 25 July, and has no overall winner: Lance Armstrong originally won, but in August 2012 the United States Anti-Doping Agency disqualified him from all results since 1998, including his seven consecutive Tours from 1999 to 2005, and the UCI confirmed the decision. For the first time since 1926 no French rider won a stage. Mario Cipollini won four stages in a row, a post-war record that beat Gino Bartali's three from 1948, and stage 4, ridden with a strong tailwind at 50.4 km/h, was the fastest mass-start stage in the race's history until 2026. After the 1998 scandals the organisers tried to bar Richard Virenque, Laurent Roux, Philippe Gaumont, manager Manolo Saiz and a whole team; Virenque's Polti team appealed and the UCI forced the Tour to admit Virenque and Saiz.