Jan Ullrich

Jan Ullrich (born December 2, 1973 in Rostock, Germany) is a German professional road bicycle racer. He won the Tour de France in 1997, finished 2nd five times and one time fourth (2004) and third (2005). He was the first German to win the Tour de France, which led to a bicycle sports boom in Germany. He also won a gold medal in the Olympics 2000 in Sydney and the Vuelta a España as well.

Comeback from injury, and the Armstrong years

Despite starting as the popular defending champion, Ullrich was upstaged by the aggressive attacking style of Marco Pantani in the drug scandal-ridden 1998 Tour de France. The following year saw him miss the 1999 Tour de France ? which was won for the first time by American Lance Armstrong -- due to a knee injury. However, he returned in time to win the 1999 Vuelta a España defeating the Spanish favourite Abraham Olano of Team ONCE.

Related Topics:
Marco Pantani - 1998 Tour de France - Abraham Olano - Team ONCE

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The 2000 Tour de France saw former champions Ullrich and Pantani, and defending champion Armstrong line up against each other for the first time. However, Armstrong proved too strong to upstage, as he did again in the 2001 Tour de France despite Ullrich wearing the jersey of the German National Champion. His ride in the 2001 Tour was memorable for his crash during which Armstrong waited for him to return on his bike. In interviews Ullrich cited his failures to defeat Armstrong despite his preparations as his reasons for falling into depression in the next year.

Related Topics:
2000 Tour de France - 2001 Tour de France

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In May of 2002, Ullrich temporarily had his driver's licence revoked after a drunk driving incident. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/index.php?id=2002/may02/may06news After a positive blood sample for amphetamine in June of 2002, http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2002/jul02/jul04news2 Ullrich's contract with Team Telekom was ended, and he was banned for 6 months. He explained that the positive result was from ingesting the recreational drug ecstasy, which had been cut with ampetamine. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2002/jul02/jul06news2 He had not been racing since January due to a recurring knee injury http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2002/may02/may08news, and the German Cycling Federation's disciplinary committee agreed that he was not attempting to use the drug for performance enhancement, so he was only given a minimum suspension http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2002/jul02/jul24news.

Related Topics:
2002 - Drunk driving - Amphetamine - Ecstasy - German Cycling Federation - Performance enhancement

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In January of 2003, Ullrich and his longtime advisor Rudy Pevenage joined the Team Coast outfit, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/2648577.stm but after severe financial problems Coast pulled its sponsorship, and Team Bianchi was formed. He finally returned to racing in March of 2003.

Related Topics:
2003 - Rudy Pevenage - Team Coast - Team Bianchi

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In the 2003 Tour de France, Ullrich once again finished second, behind Armstrong. It was the closest Ullrich had come to defeating Armstrong, during which Tour he defeated Armstrong in an individual time trial stage and put time into Armstrong the following day in a climbing stage. Armstrong managed to bluff his way and Ullrich did not put in an attack until the very last section of the stage, failing to capitalize on Armstrong's temporary weakness. In the end, Armstrong held on and won the Tour yet again. The 2003 edition was also memorable for Armstrong's crash due to his handlebar getting caught in a spectator's bag. Whether Jan Ullrich waited for Armstrong to remount is still subject of intense debate, although Ullrich himself asserted that he did indeed wait and did not attack.

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In terms of finishes, Jan Ullrich could be compared with Raymond Poulidor, who was called the "eternal second" (with the difference that Poulidor never won the Tour de France), but a better candidate would probably be Joop Zoetemelk, who won the Tour once as well and finished in second place six times, only one more than Ullrich. Also like Poulidor, Ullrich has not donned the Maillot jaune since 1998.

Related Topics:
Raymond Poulidor - Joop Zoetemelk - Maillot jaune

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