2003 Tour de France

The team selection was done in three rounds: in November 2002, the fourteen highest-ranking Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) teams would automatically qualify; four wildcard invitations were given in January 2003, and four more in mid-May.^[4] The race started with 22 teams of 9 cyclists.^[5]

The teams entering the race were:^[6]

Qualified teams

Invited teams

Some notable cyclists excluded from the race were Mario Cipollini and Marco Pantani, whose teams De Nardi–Colpack and Mercatone Uno–Scanavino were not selected.^[7] Especially the absence of Cipollini, the reigning world champion, came as a surprise. The Tour organisation gave the reason that Cipollini had never been able to finish the race.^[8]

In the first round, the Coast team had been selected to compete, and in January 2003 they signed Jan Ullrich. Financial problems then almost prevented the team from starting, but after Bianchi stepped in as a new sponsor, Team Bianchi was allowed to take the place of Team Coast.

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 8.^[9]

Stage characteristics and winners^{[10][11][12][13]}

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
P	5 July	Paris	6.5 km (4.0 mi)		Individual time trial	Bradley McGee (AUS)
1	6 July	Saint-Denis to Meaux	168.0 km (104.4 mi)		Flat stage	Alessandro Petacchi (ITA)
2	7 July	La Ferté-sous-Jouarre to Sedan	204.5 km (127.1 mi)		Flat stage	Baden Cooke (AUS)
3	8 July	Charleville-Mézières to Saint-Dizier	167.5 km (104.1 mi)		Flat stage	Alessandro Petacchi (ITA)
4	9 July	Joinville to Saint-Dizier	69.0 km (42.9 mi)		Team time trial	U.S. Postal Service (USA)
5	10 July	Troyes to Nevers	196.5 km (122.1 mi)		Flat stage	Alessandro Petacchi (ITA)
6	11 July	Nevers to Lyon	230.0 km (142.9 mi)		Flat stage	Alessandro Petacchi (ITA)
7	12 July	Lyon to Morzine	230.5 km (143.2 mi)		Mountain Stage (s)	Richard Virenque (FRA)
8	13 July	Sallanches to Alpe d'Huez	219.0 km (136.1 mi)		Mountain Stage (s)	Iban Mayo (ESP)
9	14 July	Le Bourg-d'Oisans to Gap	184.5 km (114.6 mi)		Mountain Stage (s)	Alexander Vinokourov (KAZ)
10	15 July	Gap to Marseille	219.5 km (136.4 mi)		Flat stage	Jakob Piil (DEN)
	16 July	Narbonne			Rest day
11	17 July	Narbonne to Toulouse	153.5 km (95.4 mi)		Flat stage	Juan Antonio Flecha (ESP)
12	18 July	Gaillac to Cap Découverte	47.0 km (29.2 mi)		Individual time trial	Jan Ullrich (GER)
13	19 July	Toulouse to Ax 3 Domaines	197.5 km (122.7 mi)		Mountain Stage (s)	Carlos Sastre (ESP)
14	20 July	Saint-Girons to Loudenvielle	191.5 km (119.0 mi)		Mountain Stage (s)	Gilberto Simoni (ITA)
15	21 July	Bagnères-de-Bigorre to Luz Ardiden	159.5 km (99.1 mi)		Mountain Stage (s)	Lance Armstrong (USA)[a]
	22 July	Pau			Rest day
16	23 July	Pau to Bayonne	197.5 km (122.7 mi)		Hilly stage	Tyler Hamilton (USA)
17	24 July	Dax to Bordeaux	181.0 km (112.5 mi)		Flat stage	Servais Knaven (NED)
18	25 July	Bordeaux to Saint-Maixent-l'École	203.5 km (126.4 mi)		Flat stage	Pablo Lastras (ESP)
19	26 July	Pornic to Nantes	49.0 km (30.4 mi)		Individual time trial	David Millar (GBR)
20	27 July	Ville-d'Avray to Paris (Champs-Élysées)	152.0 km (94.4 mi)		Flat stage	Jean-Patrick Nazon (FRA)
	Total		3,427 km (2,129 mi)[14]

The Tour proved to be one more hotly contested than the previous years. Tyler Hamilton and Levi Leipheimer were involved in a crash early in the Tour. Leipheimer dropped out, Hamilton continued and got fourth place in the end while riding with a broken collarbone.

In the Alps, Gilberto Simoni and Stefano Garzelli, first and second in the Giro d'Italia earlier the same year, could not keep up with Lance Armstrong and the other favourites. The same held for last year's number 4, Santiago Botero. Joseba Beloki could, and was in second-place overall (just 40 seconds behind Armstrong) when he crashed on a fast descent from the Cote de La Rochette, shortly after passing the Col de Manse into Gap.^[15] The crash was a result of a locked brake, caused by a lack of traction from melting tar on the road, which led to the tyre coming off the rim.^[16] Beloki broke his right femur, elbow and wrist, and had to leave the Tour.^[17] Armstrong made a detour through the field beside the road to avoid the fallen Beloki. Armstrong was in yellow, but Jan Ullrich won the first time trial by one minute and 36 seconds. He and Alexander Vinokourov were both within very short distance from Armstrong.^[18]

Subsequent to Armstrong's statement to withdraw his fight against United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) charges, on 24 August 2012, the USADA said it would ban Armstrong for life and stripped him of his record seven Tour de France titles.^[19][20] Later that day it was confirmed in a USADA statement that Armstrong was banned for life and would be disqualified from any and all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to 1 August 1998, including forfeiture of any medals, titles, winnings, finishes, points and prizes.^[1] On 22 October 2012, the Union Cycliste Internationale endorsed the USADA sanctions, and decided not to award victories to any other rider or upgrade other placings in any of the affected events.^[2]

There were four main individual classifications contested in the 2003 Tour de France, as well as a team competition. The most important was the general classification, which was calculated by adding each rider's finishing times on each stage.^[21] There were time bonuses given at the end of each mass start stage.^[22] If a crash had happened within the final 1 km (0.6 mi) of a stage, not including time trials and summit finishes, the riders involved would have received the same time as the group they were in when the crash occurred.^[23] The rider with the lowest cumulative time was the winner of the general classification and was considered the overall winner of the Tour. The rider leading the classification wore a yellow jersey.^[24]

The second classification was the points classification. Riders received points for finishing in the highest positions in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints during the stage. The points available for each stage finish were determined by the stage's type.^[25] The leader was identified by a green jersey.^[24]

The third classification was the mountains classification. Most stages of the race included one or more categorised climbs, in which points were awarded to the riders that reached the summit first. The climbs were categorised as fourth-, third-, second- or first-category and hors catégorie, with the more difficult climbs rated lower.^[25] The leader wore a white jersey with red polka dots.^[24]

The final individual classification was the young rider classification. This was calculated the same way as the general classification, but the classification was restricted to riders who were born on or after 1 January 1977.^[25] The leader wore a white jersey.^[24]

The final classification was a team classification. This was calculated using the finishing times of the best three riders per team on each stage; the leading team was the team with the lowest cumulative time.^[25]

There was special classification, the Centenaire, which combined times of riders across the six stages involving cities visited during 1903 Tour. The cities were: Lyon, on stage 6; Marseille, on stage 10; Toulouse, on stage 11; Bordeaux, on stage 17; Nantes, on stage 19; and Paris, on stage 20.^[22]

In addition, there was a combativity award given after each mass start stage to the rider considered, by a jury, to have "shown the greatest effort and demonstrated the greatest sporting spirit".^[26] The winner wore a red number bib the following stage.^[24] At the conclusion of the Tour, Alexander Vinokourov (Team Telekom) won the overall super-combativity award.^[27]

There were also two special awards each with a prize of €5000, the Souvenir Henri Desgrange, given in honour of Tour founder and first race director Henri Desgrange to the first rider to pass the summit of the Col du Galibier on stage 8, and the Souvenir Jacques Goddet, given in honour of the second director Jacques Goddet to the first rider to pass the summit of the Col du Tourmalet on stage 15.^[28] Stefano Garzelli won the Henri Desgrange and Sylvain Chavanel won the Jacques Goddet.^[29][30]

Classification leadership by stage^[31][32]

Stage	Winner	General classification	Points classification	Mountains classification	Young rider classification	Team classification	Combativity award
P	Bradley McGee	Bradley McGee	Bradley McGee	no award	Vladimir Karpets	U.S. Postal Service	no award
1	Alessandro Petacchi		Robbie McEwen	Christophe Mengin	Andy Flickinger		Andy Flickinger
2	Baden Cooke				Baden Cooke		Frédéric Finot
3	Alessandro Petacchi	Jean-Patrick Nazon					Anthony Geslin
4	U.S. Postal Service	Víctor Hugo Peña			Vladimir Karpets		no award
5	Alessandro Petacchi			Frédéric Finot			Frédéric Finot
6	Alessandro Petacchi		Alessandro Petacchi	Christophe Mengin			René Andrle
7	Richard Virenque	Richard Virenque	Baden Cooke	Richard Virenque	Denis Menchov	Quick-Step–Davitamon	Richard Virenque
8	Iban Mayo	Lance Armstrong[a]				Euskaltel–Euskadi	Nicolas Portal
9	Alexander Vinokourov						Jörg Jaksche
10	Jakob Piil					Team CSC	José Gutiérrez
11	Juan Antonio Flecha						Juan Antonio Flecha
12	Jan Ullrich					iBanesto.com	no award
13	Carlos Sastre					Team CSC	Carlos Sastre
14	Gilberto Simoni						Laurent Dufaux
15	Lance Armstrong[a]						Sylvain Chavanel
16	Tyler Hamilton						Tyler Hamilton
17	Servais Knaven						Servais Knaven
18	Pablo Lastras		Robbie McEwen				Andy Flickinger
19	David Millar						no award
20	Jean-Patrick Nazon		Baden Cooke				Bram de Groot
Final		Lance Armstrong[a]	Baden Cooke	Richard Virenque	Denis Menchov	Team CSC	Alexander Vinokourov

• In stage 1, David Millar wore the green jersey.
• In stage 8, Rolf Aldag wore the polka-dot jersey.

• Augendre, Jacques (2016). Guide historique [Historical guide] (PDF) (in French). Paris: Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Le règlement et les prix [The regulations and prizes] (PDF). Paris: Amaury Sport Organisation. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2003. Retrieved 4 March 2019. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

• Wilcockson, John (2003). The 2003 Tour de France: 100th Anniversary Tour. Boulder, Colorado: VeloPress. ISBN 978-1-931382-26-7.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tour de France 2003.

• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 1 October 2003)
• 2003 Tour de France at Cyclingnews.com