Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was

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Perfect for any cycling fan, but also for those who are interested in the complexity and fragility that often accompanies the most gifted, but also the experiences that shapes them. Over een overeenkomst tussen het DDR-dopingprogramma en de vroegste resultaten van Jan wordt warm en koud geblazen (er bestaat alleszins geen bewijs voor), maar het ergste vind ik persoonlijk iets dat weggemoffeld wordt in een voetnoot (namelijk nr. Ulli is placed in context - particularly of growing up in the DDR’s sporting program, and the loss of the DDR’s certainties. I'd still recommend it for any cycling fan to understand the pressure TdF winners are for ever under and how they cope, or don't.

Jan Ullrich hospitalised after relapse, according to report Jan Ullrich hospitalised after relapse, according to report

Since his ostracism following the Operation Puerto investigation and his belated confession of doping during his sporting career, the former winner of the 1997 Tour de France has drowned in alcohol and been lost to drugs, starring in a number of scandals.

The result was that Lance went into the Tour lean and mean whilst Jan was just about coming into form as the race finished – three weeks of the, ‘proper pro-life’ having knocked him back into shape. Ullrich had faced assault charges back in 2018 and wasn't allowed to see his children after splitting with his wife, but on Armstrong's podcast he said that cycling, drinking water and a healthy diet was saving him adding "I hang-out with friends.

Jan Ullrich by Daniel Friebe - Pan Macmillan

Jan was in that era, that cesspool that we were all in, and he got caught, we all got caught, and the reason I went to see him is I love him," Armstrong says in the documentary, struggling to compose himself. Even if he crashes in the Vuelta and then has to have surgery and be out for three weeks, he comes back and wins. Ullrich remains an enigma, the cycling wunderkind from East Germany who rode in the magenta jersey of T-Mobile and always finished second to Lance.But by the ‘94 Worlds when said young German fellow took Worlds individual time trial bronze, behind ‘chronoman supreme,’ Chris Boardman I remember thinking; ‘Jan Ullrich, now there’s a name to watch. But to paraphrase the title of that Jack Nicholson film, that was, ‘As Good as it Got,’ for Ullrich. We quickly fell to comparing his palmares - he won the Tour de France at the age of 23 and was responsible with his Telekom team for the cycling boom in Germany - with Remco Evenepoel, on whom the pressure of a whole country's cycling faith is falling.

Jan Ullrich, a sad and lonesome tale of cycling’s best there Jan Ullrich, a sad and lonesome tale of cycling’s best there

There the achievement was to give an authentic voice - sometimes it really sounded like a Cav interview recounting a sprint finish.

In Mallorca I realised that much of the public had forgiven him and showed their admiration without reproach.