Back from heaven and hell: Ullrich aims to make peace with Tour
Germany’s only Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich hopes to make peace with organizers of the famous race where like Lance Armstrong he is not welcome owing to his doping past.
Ullrich, 50, told dpa in an interview ahead of Saturday’s start of the 111th Tour he believes the time for reconciliation has now come after he has finally admitted to have used illegal substances.
Time for reconciliation
“I think the time is ripe for us to say: Now we can draw a line under it – in recognition of the mistakes I have made. I’m a Tour de France winner and I’m part of Tour history. I have acknowledged my mistakes – which were not just mine,” he said.
“I think it’s important to be open to a dialogue. So much time has passed that you can sit down at a table and talk about how to shape the future.”
TV pundit and other tasks
Ullrich will work as a pundit for Eurosport at several stages of the race which starts in Florence and ends on July 21 in Nice, and can see himself in a similar role in the future.
“I’m even on site in Italy for the first few days because I have some appointments there. The Tour de France is always a highlight,” he said.
He added: I’m happy, because cycling still defines my life. It’s my passion, my great love.
“I also organize my cycling events, one of them in Majorca together with Lance. That’s pretty good for one year. What happens next remains to be seen. I will always stay involved in cycling. Because I love this sport very much.”
Pogacar is Ullrich’s top favourite
Looking ahead at the upcoming Tour, he said that twice former champion and last months’s Giro d’Italia winner Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia is the big favourite, naming him “the Eddy Merckx of our time” in reference to the former Belgian great.
From heaven to hell
Ullrich won the Tour in 1997 but his career, which also included Olympic gold in 2000 and three world titles, ended abruptly nine years later over links to Spanish doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.
What followed were personal crises including alcohol and drug addictions, and the breakdown of his family.
Fresh start after doping confession
Ullrich, who unlike Armstrong is still listed as a Tour winner, only really admitted to having doped last autumn in a television documentary. He previously said only that he never betrayed anyone, a reference to widespread doping at the time.
He has also come clean in a book published on Tuesday in Germany, saying the title “Heaven, hell, and back into life” pretty much summed up his life.
“I’ve been through both. My sporting success in one of the most difficult sports in the world, being the only German to win the Tour de France, that was cycling heaven for me,” he said.
“And then of course there was the difficult time afterwards, when I fell really, really low with my life crises. That was hell.
“But it doesn’t end there, because the path leads back to life. The reappraisal that I shared with the public was super important for me. The pressure is off my shoulders, my personal pressure is less and I finally feel comfortable with it again.
“I am also sure that I am now back to normal life and no longer need the extremes that I used to seek.”
