July 28, 1998: a drizzly day that every cycling enthusiast can still remember well. It was the 15th stage in the 1998 Tour de France that would normally be won by der kaiser Jan Ullrich. In 1996 he was second in his debut after his leader Bjarne Riis and in 1997 winner.
It had to be a long period of supremacy, even the greatest, Eddy Merckx, had no doubts that der Jan would break his record of 5 Tour victories. After all, Jan Ullrich was only 23 years old when he won his 1st Tour de France in 1997.
Nobody doubted that Ullrich would also win the 1998 Tour and this with great force majeure.
However, that was without Marco Pantani counted. During the 15th stage, this great climber would make history in the mountain stage with start in Grenoble and arrival at Les Deux Alpes. It was the king's stage over a distance of 189km with climbs of the Col de la Croix-De-Fer, Col du Télégraphe, Col du Galibier and finally the Col Les Deux Alps.
That day it was really dog weather: it was freezing cold and it rained from the start. Jan Ullrich started the stage as leader with a 3-minute lead over Pantani who was then 4th in the general classification. Ullrich's team Team Deutsche Telekom controlled the race and the final was expected to erupt on the flanks of Les Deux Alps, but that was without Marco Pantani.
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At 5km from the top of the Col du Galibier, Pantani attacked and immediately made a hole, most thought madness and only Luc Leblanc tried to keep up with Il Pirata. But Pantani went ahead and systematically gnawed at his backlog. Jan Ullrich sat on his bike, numb from the cold and had to watch that more and more riders left him.
Pantani kept going on and on, encouraged by the audience, he picked up one escape after another. In the end, at the finish of his heroic rush, he was almost 2 minutes ahead of Rodolfo Massi and Fernando Escartin, nearly 3 minutes ahead of Christophe Rinero and nearly 6 minutes ahead of Bobby Julich and Michael Boogerd, 5th and 6th respectively.
For Jan Ullrich, taken in tow by his lieutenant Bjarne Riis, it was a long wait. Der Jan lost no less than 9 minutes, allowing him to give up his dream of a 2nd consecutive Tour victory. He tumbled from 1st to 4th place in the overall ranking, almost 6 minutes behind the new yellow jersey Marco Pantani.
The following days, Ullrich bravely continued to attack Pantani's leading position, ending up in 2nd place in the final classification, just over 3 minutes behind Pantani.
Find out more about the Bianchi bike with which Pantani destroyed Ullrich in the article the Bianchi Specialissima from Pantani
In the video below (in Italian) you can watch Pantani's heroic deed
