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.

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 di Italia for suspicion of doping the following year.