the 1997 tour de france saw the emergence of ullrich as he won the race with support from riis, who in turn had won the world cup race amstel gold race earlier in 1997. team telekom also won the team classification, as the overall strongest team of the 1997 tour. in addition, bolts won the critérium du dauphiné libéré, zabel won milan – san remo for the first of four times with the team. ullrich also won the championships of hamburg semi-classic. the following year this race was elevated to the status of world cup. in addition the deutschland tour returned in 1999 – evidence of the continuing popularity of cycling in germany at the time. while ullrich had a crash in the race and was forced to retire, team telekom did win the first edition of the race with heppner and would win the race again with alexander vinokourov in 2001.