2000 Tour de France

The 2000 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 1 to 23 July, and the 87th edition of the Tour de France. There was no overall winner following a vacating of results by the United States Anti-Doping Agency announcement on 24 August 2012 that they had disqualified Lance Armstrong from all his results since 1 August 1998, including his seven Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005; the Union Cycliste Internationale confirmed the result.

The Tour started with an individual time trial in Futuroscope (not an official prologue because it was longer than 8 km) and ended, traditionally, in Paris. The distance travelled was 3663 km (counter-clockwise around France). The Tour passed through Switzerland and Germany.

Before the race started, there were several favourites: Armstrong, after his 1999 Tour de France victory; Jan Ullrich, having won the 1997 Tour de France, finishing second in the 1996 and 1998 tours, and not entering the 1999 Tour due to an injury; and 1998 Tour winner Marco Pantani. Richard Virenque finished 8th place in the 1999 Tour despite bad preparation, and for the 2000 edition he was considered an important rider. Fernando Escartín, Bobby Julich, Alexander Vinokourov and Alex Zülle were also considered contenders.

17 teams were automatically selected based on their UCI rankings. In addition, three teams were given wildcards by organisers of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). Each of these 20 teams sent 9 cyclists, for a total of 180: Before the start, each rider had to do a health check. Three riders failed this health check; Sergei Ivanov, from Farm Frites; Rossano Brasi, from Team Polti; Andrei Hauptman, from Vini Caldirola–Sidermec; all because they had a hematocrit value above 50%. The race thus started with 177 cyclists.

The teams entering the race were:

Qualified teams

Invited teams

The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,642 m (8,668 ft) at the summit of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 15.