Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was

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Friebe’s own ghost-written Cavendish autobiographies. There the achievement was to give an authentic voice - sometimes it really sounded like a Cav interview recounting a sprint finish. Here it’s more complex: a revealing and sympathetic portrait of a man who does not articulate well, and did not speak to the author at all. 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. The 48-year-old was reported by the newspaper Bild to have been in Cuba, celebrating his birthday with friends. It is reported that he was admitted to hospital following a layover in Mexico, en route home, and was later transferred to a Swiss clinic for therapy.

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

Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).That would be telling in other ways — Armstrong later drew out all the worse insecurities in Ullrich thanks to his seven successive Tour wins; Ullrich never won another Tour after 1997 but made the podium seven times too, finishing runner-up five times, third in 2005, and might have won his debut Tour in 1996 if he wasn’t riding for team leader Bjarne Riis. Definitive performance Ullirch and Armstrong went riding together in Mallorca, with the Texan posting photographs and video on his social media. Armstrong, who recently turned 50, claimed he suffered, while Ullrich joked he had only been riding for a few weeks. I met a modest but delighted Jan Ullrich. He arrived with his girlfriend and a couple of friends, one of whom was responsible for accompanying him on the 312 kilometre challenge he would undertake in Mallorca. Though I would have hoped to ask him more, the interview had to be kept light and easy-going at his request. However, I still saw him consistent with his past. "This is what I need in my life," he said when discussing the event. "I'm in good shape, I love cycling and all this together, I think it makes my life more interesting." It is his quiet corner . 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.

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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. 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: The Best There Never Was is the first biography of Jan Ullrich, arguably the most naturally talented cyclist of his generation, and also one of the most controversial champions of the Tour de France. The German was admitted to hospital in Mexico a couple of weeks ago, with reports suggesting he had relapsed in his drug and alcohol addiction

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

His breakout performance in the 1997 Tour came on Stage 10, the 252km ride including five mountain peaks to the Arcalis ski resort in Andorra. Ullrich dropped all other rivals and won by more than a minute from Richard Virenque, his soon-to-be Festina notoriety, and with that became the first German to wear the maillot jaune since Klaus-Peter Thaler in the 1978.In 1997, Jan Ullrich announced himself to the world by obliterating his rivals at the Tour de France and becoming Germany’s first ever winner. Everyone agreed: Jan Ullrich would dominate the future of cycling. But he never quite managed it. 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 is not easy as a journalist to talk about a character like Ullrich without it being understood as an apology for his past. Having compassion towards him does not free him from his sins as a cyclist, but a hand is extended to him so that he can return to life as a person. That’s a path that he has begun to rebuild with his family, whom he had abandoned for years, to continue with cycling and, as I understand, to finish with an improved public opinion. It is in Mallorca where Ullrich found redemption from his past life. He was saved, filled with calm and returned to the quiet corner. Never the less the book does have interest, life in the DDR and the reunification are aspects which are little known. Ironically the book springs to like whenever Armstrong appears, his drive and the power of his personality, both positive and negative are far more engaging and to give him his due he appears to genuinely like Ulrich and has stood by him, literally in some cases. 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.