It’s always good to point out the longest stage of the Tour de France. It’s rarely the most difficult, but stage 5 on Wednesday, July 9 gets the 2008 honor with a journey of 232 kilometers, 144.1 miles, from Cholet to Chateauoux.
The route won’t include any categorized climbs, but the trek will feature many rolling hills as the peloton finds its way on a five-hour trip across the southern part of the Loire Valley.
It’s the kind of stage during which breakaways will likely occur. But more than likely, it will be a sprinters’ day again, with the favorites like Robbie McEwen (Silence-Lotto) of Australia or South Africa’s Robbie Hunter (Barloworld) positioning themselves toward the front via teammates’ help in the waning miles.
The fifth stage will also mark the 10th anniversary (plus one day) of one of the Tour's darker times.
On a very similar route in 1998, Mario Cipollini of Italy (Remember his brief comeback at the Tour of California in February?) emerged from a 180-rider sprint to edge Erik Zabel of Germany, now of cycling's elder statesman.
However, Cipollini’s win occurred only after noted aggressive sprinters Jan Svorada and Jaan Kirsipuu were relegated for dangerous riding the sprint.
The massive arrival occurred after American George Hincapie, riding early in is his now 13-time Tour de France tenure, attempted an unsuccessful long breakaway to dislodge Stuart O’Grady of Australia from the race lead.
It was a memorable Tour stage with one exception that took the media’s attention away from the race and into the Tour’s drug problems.
The night before the stage, doctors and soigneur Willy Voet of the French team, Festina, were taken into custody in what would become the commonly known as the “Festina Affair.” The Tour also became known as the "Tour de Dopage" (Tour of Doping).
Voet was traveling into France when he was arrested at the French-Spain border after he was found with large quantities of doping products. Several teams eventually pulled out of the race after subsequent hotel raids. As a result, only about half the starting field made it to the final day in Paris.
In the end, the race was won by now-deceased Italian Marco Pantani, with now-retired Jan Ullrich of Germany second and American Bobby Julich, now riding in the last year of his career, third.