The 2001 Tour de France was particularly difficult, having contained a 67-km long team time trial, two individual time trials and five mountain-top finishes on consecutive days, the second of which being the Chamrousse special category climb time trial. Thus, all the high-mountain stages were grouped one after the other, with one rest day in between, following the climbing time trial. France was ridden 'clockwise', and thus the Alps were visited before the Pyrenees. The Tour started in France, but in the first week Belgium was visited as well. The traditional finish was on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
It has no overall winner after American cyclist Lance Armstrong was disqualified. In August 2012, the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced that they had disqualified Armstrong from all his results since 1998, including his victory in the 2001 Tour de France; the Union Cycliste Internationale has confirmed this verdict.
Erik Zabel won his record sixth consecutive points classification victory.
Read more about 2001 Tour De France: Participants, Stages, Results, Doping
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