Should Jan retire?

Girotour

Well, no one complained on Ullrichs riding style in 1996,97,98 when he attacked Pantani one day after he lost a lot of time because he didn't eat enough and won the stage. At that time no one could follow Ullrich's pace in the mountains, he didn't attack but there was a selection as almost no one was able to stay with Ullrich. Remember when he lost some time on mountain stage in 1998 (Plateau de Beille) because his bike was damaged and after it was repaired he passed everyone in front of him like Armstrong in his best days( Press called him "new Indurain, extraterrestial").
He also shows he can still do it today in third weeks of TDF, his problem is he gets into shape too late .

limerickman

Eurosport did the "Living with Bianchi" reports during the 2003 TDF :
They interviewed Stefan Ullrich : and I agree very much "nightclub bouncer"
demeanour.

You can see the build of the Ullrich brothers : big boys indeed.

Contrasts nicely with tonight on Eurosport : they did a behind the scenes shot of Credit Agricoles Cedric Vasseur : I always thought that CV was a big guy.
They showed him in the bus after todays stage stripping off his jersey.
There isn't a pick on the guy !
Talk about two arms and two legs : that's it.
No one ounce of spare flesh anywhere : you could see his backbone, ribs :
He looks big on the bike : TV can be deceptive.

limerickman

Ullrich's demeanour on the bike is very interesting :
Over the years I have watched him and he rarely speaks to anyone when he's in the group.
As a kid, Riis and Bolts were constantly talking to him and he with them.
But I noticed that in recent years, all chat has stopped.
Except this year : Ullrich was on stage 15, I think, he was at the back of the group with the team car and was making his way through the peloton and
he passed Heras and Beloki and he said acjnowledged them both with a smile and a hello.
That was the first time I'd see JU actually speak to anyone while on his bike in the TDF for a long time.

whiteboytrash

He is very good friends with the English speaking bike riders and he can speak German and some good English..... funny enough he and Bobby Jullich are very good friends.... Jan is very shy but he blew up at the press this year when they questioned his mental and physical state.... he just had enough of the constant critism… there are not many other cyclist who get it by the press as much as he does…

Also on ITV2 tonight Beloki paid a tribute to Armstrong was quoted as saying the first person to call him in hospital after the stage to Gap in 2003 was Lance.... nice touch.....

limerickman

Maybe he and Jullich became friends after trying to catch - unsuccessfully - Pantani during the 1998 TDF !!!!!!!
I always recall BJ being interviewed and him saying that MP was just phenomenal.
I've got the interview of both JU and BJ on tape after Les Deux Alpes stage that year : they were both freezing and very pissed off.

Agree - nice of Beloki to mention that.

gntlmn

Now that Jan is up against the ropes in the 2005 Tour de France, I see some of the old fire in him again. He made some time against Rasmussen today, and I see that he is very determined to podium in Paris. I suspect he will because he is so much better in the TT than M Rasmussen.

If he does, he might be 2nd in the Tour, if Armstrong weren't here this year. There's that magic number 2 again. He'll be making a case for himself again next year as being 2nd among all 2006 contenders the previous year, and that ain't too shabby. I like to see him fighting again. He didn't turn it on quickly enough though this year. He seemed to be better prepared than other years, but it didn't show in the times he posted in the prologue TT and the earliest mountain stages.

He's too good to deny entry, but not quite fired up enough to win, it seems.