The 1998 Tour de France was marred by doping scandals throughout, starting with the arrest of Willy Voet a soigneur in the French Festina team. Voet was traveling into France when he was arrested and found with large quantities of doping products. As a result, repeated police raids found drugs in the rooms of the TVM team, and as a reaction the riders staged a sit-down protest of the treatment. The Spanish teams pulled out of the race at the urging of the ONCE team, led by Laurent Jalabert the French National Champion. Laurent Jalabert was born in France in 1968, a professional cyclist from 1989-2002. ...

This 1998 edition of Tour de France was won by Marco Pantani, with podium placing of Jan Ullrich the defending champion and American Bobby Julich. Ironically, Marco Pantani was thrown out of the Giro d'Italia for suspicion of doping the following year. The (Le) Tour de France (French for Tour of France), also simply known as Le Tour, is an epic long distance road bicycle racing competition for professionals held over three weeks in July in and around France. ... Marco Pantani (Cesena, January 13, 1970 – February 14, 2004) was an Italian cyclist widely regarded as being one of the best climbers of his generation in professional road bicycle racing. ... Jan Ullrich in the T-Mobile Team uniform during the Prologue to the 2004 Tour de France Jan Ullrich (born December 2, 1973 in Rostock, Germany) is a German professional road bicycle racer. ... The Giro dItalia, also simply known as the Giro, is a long distance road bicycle race for professionals held over three weeks in May or early June in and around Italy. ...