So, Ullrich

knedlicky

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

Anyone who as a teenager on an East German sports development program who wakes up up before a ride to find the house is devoid of cereal so instead eats two litres of icecream deserves to be liked.

Not sure I could do that, as not an ice-cream fan, nor could I warm a whole glass of Nutella in the microwave then spoon that in (as Ullrich also apparently did).
But I feel on the same wavelength as him when I hear he drank 3 bottles of red wine in one evening and then still turned up for training next morning and despite hangover did okay.

knedlicky

mz__jo wrote:

As a product of the East German sports development system it would be reasonable to assume that he was doped without a lot of choice in the matter before he turned pro ...

I don’t believe this to have been the case. Evidence from former East German cyclists suggests doping was only introduced to them when they reached the junior national level status, at age 16-17 years. Ullrich was born in late ’73 and the Wall fell in Summer ’89, when he was still only 15 years old. And then, when he turned 16, he moved to the West.

As Tusher implies in her post, your argument may apply more to Voigt. He was born in ’71, so he’d turned 18 before the Wall fell, and he only moved from the East in 1997, when 26 years old. After the Wall fell, suspect trainers still worked in East Germany for 3-4 years, so until about 1993. Voigt won the Peace Race in 1994 without any major successes beforehand.
He also was in a team under Bjarne Riis for 6 years, which also casts a shadow.

Ullrich has always said he never cheated anyone, and I think this probably true in the circle of potential Tour winners of his day, because I suspect he doped the least. His trainer Pevenage said they knew Armstrong before his illness and how the transition since his illness was unbelievable, and so they knew that there was no other choice. Just Ullrich apparently didn’t make that much use of the ‘other choice’; his personality was inclined more to comfort.

frenchfighter

Getty

At finish with wife Sara


Friend Frank Woerndl

16simon

He looks like he's assaulting Frank Woerndl in the last picture. Perhaps he thought he was hiding a cake somewhere in his jersey?

calvjones

Whatever happened to the range of bikes he had? Always thought an Ullrich Fat Jan Ultegra would have been my perfect bike.

sherer

Didn't Ullrich once say "Who can't add two and two and work out what was going on then is beyond my help" or words to that affect.

What i'd like to see is him owning up to how it got it, who from, team members that knew about it, if it was a team instigated thing, what the UCI knew about it and any others that took it with him.

As a side note still not sure what to make of Millar as he came back with Saunier Duval who were just as bad a doping team as any others out there

finchy

sherer wrote:

As a side note still not sure what to make of Millar as he came back with Saunier Duval who were just as bad a doping team as any others out there

And got out as soon as he had the chance.

dave_1

looks in good fitness...bet he could still turn in some world class performances

dave_1

sherer wrote:

Didn't Ullrich once say "Who can't add two and two and work out what was going on then is beyond my help" or words to that affect.

What i'd like to see is him owning up to how it got it, who from, team members that knew about it, if it was a team instigated thing, what the UCI knew about it and any others that took it with him.

As a side note still not sure what to make of Millar as he came back with Saunier Duval who were just as bad a doping team as any others out there

Better to let sleeping dogs lie

rick_chasey

Dave_1 wrote:

looks in good fitness...bet he could still turn in some world class performances

He's never ever reached his '97 silmness.

Whether it's because his body wasn't quite fully developed at that age I don't know, but when I look at guys like Ulrich and to a lesser extent Boonen (who now definitely cuts a slighty different figure to the '05 Boonen) I see early years domination as something that might just be not that sustainable, since your body might just develop out of that peak cycling physique.

Observe:


Ulle '97.



He's just bigger all round. He even seems bigger boned.

shinyhelmut

Dave_1 wrote:

Better to let sleeping dogs lie

cajun_cyclist

Ullrich is riding in the Gran Fondo USA on November 20th. I know I've seen Ullrich posts around so I didn't want to create an additional one if this has been reported here already.

http://www.marca.com/2011/10/19/ciclism ... 26263.html

"Ullrich volverá a subirse a una bicicleta" Rather self explanatory.

cajun_cyclist

El ciclista Jan Ullrich, ganador (winner of) de un Tour de Francia, una Vuelta a España y un oro olímpico (one Olympic gold), se ha convertido en nuevo embajador de 'StarEvents', lo que significa que volverá a subirse a la bicicleta para participar en la prueba final del circuito 'Gran Fondo USA', en Miami, el próximo 20 de noviembre junto a miles de ciclistas amateurs.

The first paragraph of the story says something like Ullrich has converted to being a new ambassador of Star Events, that means he will ride his bike to participate in the test final circuit of the Gran Fondo USA in Miami together with thousands of amatuers. Okay, so this is not a real professional race.

These other cyclists will be there as well: "Mark Renshaw, Peter Wrolich, Geoffroy Lequatre and Peter Luttenberger", some of these I know of, it sounds like they play a similar role as Ullrich.

TommyEss

johnfinch wrote:

sherer wrote:

As a side note still not sure what to make of Millar as he came back with Saunier Duval who were just as bad a doping team as any others out there

And got out as soon as he had the chance.

The impression I got from the excerpt of Millar's book in ProCycling, was that in order to return to the pro peloton, he had to accept whatever contract he was offered, and Saunier Duval offered peanuts, which was presumably a good offer at the time, all things considered.

pedro118118

I don't think we need another Millar.
Or another Riis for that matter.

Tom Dean

Tusher wrote:

Or maybe not, as Jens will be the first 50 year old to ride the Tour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Tour_de_France

Among the competitors was Henri Paret who, at 50 years old, still holds the record of oldest Tour de France cyclist.

Not a very long edition, no mountains either.

Just 2428km over 6 stages

mrushton

Rick Chasey wrote:

Dave_1 wrote:

looks in good fitness...bet he could still turn in some world class performances

He's never ever reached his '97 silmness.

Whether it's because his body wasn't quite fully developed at that age I don't know, but when I look at guys like Ulrich and to a lesser extent Boonen (who now definitely cuts a slighty different figure to the '05 Boonen) I see early years domination as something that might just be not that sustainable, since your body might just develop out of that peak cycling physique.



He's just bigger all round. He even seems bigger boned.

i was close to him (a couple of feet away) at the 2007 Giro and he was a big guy - not fat, just slender but v.tall and powerful (his brother who looked after the bike was fat), especially compared to some one like SImoni who was tiny