Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was

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In the recent ESPN documentary on Lance Armstrong, the Texan reveals he travelled to Mallorca to visit Ullrich in 2018 and help the rider he describes as "the most important person in my life". The book is worth reading just for the wild Jan asides. Its also well researched and interesting. Essentially its a book about wasted potential of elite athletes, specifically Jan Ulrich, who was one of the more physically dominant bikers in history. It’s just a terrible situation. 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. The long awaited biography of Jan Ullrich by the eloquent and knowledgeable Daniel Friebe does not disappoint. Friebe is one the presenters of the Cycling Podcast and has been working as a journalist in cycling for two decades. As a veteran reporter on the Tour caravan, a polyglot, and an avid speed golf player he turned out to be the best biographer we could have wished for. He moved to Germany, and properly learned German to write this book.

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Could it have been reversed in Ullrich’s favour, if the same ‘assistance’ was available?, this book appears to suggest it was a possibility.

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The only disappointment is I was left empty by the fact that Jan declined to be interviewed, which really just mirrors the disappointment I repeatedly felt when discovering the number of times Jan could have chosen a different path, and the emptiness I feel that he seems to still be turning the cranks with a dropped chain. Pevenage recently released his autobiography, which discussed his involvement with Ullrich and his doping, with friends of the former Team Telekom rider apparently calling him up to verbally abuse him over the book. I stopped (drinking) alcohol and stopped drugs three years ago. Now I live very healthy, my girlfriend cooks very healthy for me. This brought me to a good shape and a good feeling.”

Jan Ullrich: I was just like Marco Pantani… nearly dead Jan Ullrich: I was just like Marco Pantani… nearly dead

From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: Beautiful writing, well researched and brilliantly balanced. I think Daniel wrestled with this one, I'm glad he did.

I watch all the cycling races," he tells me. "My favourite riders are Peter Sagan, Alejandro Valverde, Julian Alaphilippe and Tadej Pogacar. But above them all there is Miguel Indurain. He is my hero”. After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories. A fortnight out from the start of the 2022 Tour de France in Copenhagen, Friebe’s substantial-sized work is neatly timed — also coming as it does now 25 years after Ullrich became the first and last German to win the Tour, his victory margin in 1997 of nine minutes and nine seconds not surpassed since. Nor indeed was Ullrich’s own career high.

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

The former Tour de France winner spoke about how finding friends in Armstrong and others after re-adopting a healthy lifestyle You drastically changed my life. You challenged me as a man,” Armstrong said in the podcast, recognising the importance of their former rivalry and now of their friendship. Daniel Friebe, as a host of the Cycling Podcast, is one of the most interesting spoken-word commentators on cycling and this lives up to that. Comparisons are with some of the best cycle sport books:But realistically neither Ullrich or Pantani ( another rider who followed a similar fall from grace as Ullrich, ending in graver circumstances) could compete with the Armstrong phenomena whom, either on the bike or off of it, was always going to be the preferred cash cow of the TDF. Who could blame the organisers with the financial clout and resources of the USA and his celebrity status after surviving cancer.

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This is a gripping account of how unbearable expectation, mental and physical fragility, the effects of a complicated childhood, a morally corrupt sport and one individual – Lance Armstrong – can conspire to reroute destiny. Daniel Friebe takes us from the legacy of East Germany’s drugs programme to the pinnacle of pro cycling and asks: what price can you give sporting immortality? Ullrich first returned to the bike some time before at the training camp for millionaires organised by Lance Armstrong, along with George Hincapie and Johan Bruyneel on the same island of Mallorca. "I arrived in a situation like Pantani's, almost dead", he confessed to them. Since then, the German has lost weight and looks in great shape. "There was a time when I stopped cycling, but in the last few months I've started training again and it gives me a lot of energy. Sport is my drug and I love cycling," he says. The sport of cycling at its finest: in print and online, to read, watch, listen, experience and buy.

Given this period of cycling history it naturally plays out against Ullrich’s complete and utter denial of having anything whatsoever to do with doping, nor did his Team Telekom, later T-Mobile, other than giving that sense the only crime in doping was getting caught. Growing up watching tour de France in 90s & 00s was always fascinated watching ullrich . Similar facts about him as most cyclists of that period. Interesting portrayal of his life. For me thought some chapters I found heavy going so two stars where others more like 4 stars so I gave 3 stars overall. The criminal trial for the murder of cyclist Moriah Wilson that has gripped the nation and cycling world alike gets underway in Austin, Texas, today.