The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Tour began in Dublin, Ireland with a prologue individual time trial on 11 July and Stage 12 occurred on 24 July with a flat stage from Tarascon-sur-Ariège. The race finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 2 August.
After the rest day, the Tour came out of the Pyrenees. The Tour was in uproar. The riders staged a strike over the increased attention given to the drugs scandal. The riders initially refused to ride but then started under neutral conditions. Dutch radio said that the peloton initially rode very slowly indeed for 14 km behind Leblanc's lead car. The neutral conditions were being maintained. After 16 km of neutral riding and a delay of 2 hours, the Tour officially resumed at around 13.35 European time. Tom Steels took his second sprint victory in the 1998 Tour when he won the mass sprint into Le Cap d'Agde, narrowly beating François Simon and Stéphane Barthe.[2]