could have ullrich won the 96 tour i reckon he could.If bjanie riis wasnt in the race because he was riis helper and helped riis and he proberly could of Won he had the form to do it
thanks
thanks
could ullrich have won the 96 tour?
- Thread starter team bianchi
- Start date
You can argue the Greg Lemond could have won in '85 as well, but it was his job to ride in support of his leader, as was Ullrich's. What I do recall from the '96 Tour was that Ullrich was really strong in the end. But that's fairly typical of Ullrich since he often gets stronger as the race goes on. Not having the pressure of keeping the jersey may have kept him a bit more fresh. I guess we'll never know. Looking back, I bet he wishes he went for the win. Back then, everyone thought he would be the guy to break the Anquetil/Merckx/Hinault/Indurain record.team bianchi said:
YES!!! But he seems way too decent to crush his own team leader. Glad to see not everybody is a Lance bootlicker. Jan is the man!!
team bianchi said:
I echo what Peter has said.
I looked at the tapes of the 1996 TDF recently (to see the difference in JU's physique following on from the fat jibes) and watched over four hours of footage
of the 1996 TDF.
96 JU was phenomenal - he was outclimbing guys like Escartin, Indurain, LeBlanc, Zulle, Bryneel.
He was riding really really strongly.
he beat BigMig in the final ITT at St Emilion by nearly a minute.
I looked at the tapes of the 1996 TDF recently (to see the difference in JU's physique following on from the fat jibes) and watched over four hours of footage
of the 1996 TDF.
96 JU was phenomenal - he was outclimbing guys like Escartin, Indurain, LeBlanc, Zulle, Bryneel.
He was riding really really strongly.
he beat BigMig in the final ITT at St Emilion by nearly a minute.
limerickman said:
Lim,
Did you notice a difference in JU's physique, 96 compared to, say, 98 or 00? I've always felt like JU's build, which seems to be more box like than others, is very hard to read.
Could JU have won? I haven't seen video of that Tour in three years and I don't have access to it anymore. He climbed superbly, but he was always a little down on Riis. 30 seconds here and there. How much was he working for Riis? Was he pulling off near the summits?
But man, that last TT. I just checked cyclingnews.com. Almost a minute on Indurain and over 2 on Olano! Wow! A remarkable, just remarkable result anyday. At his age, unreal.
wilmar13 said:
I don't know.
I am a JU fan and while I would like to think that JU is clean, could one say that any rider is 100% clean ?
I will tell you that I have a lot of contacts in and around the peloton.
I even had a mate that competed against Ullrich as an amateur.
JU's talent was known from day one in the sport.
There was no sudden "improvement" in JU.
He entered the sport at top form and has stayed there throughout.
And there has never been any whisper about PED's in JU's case.
Not even an allegation.
I've said it before, I was lucky enough to be in Indurains company at the 1998
TDF grand depart.
BigMig in talking about his decision to retire said "I could see him (JU) in my rear view mirror and I realised that my time had passed"
Pressed on this, Indurain couldn't name any cyclist in the new generation who
he feared, apart from JU.
Says it all really.
tcklyde said:
TC,
Yeah the difference is very noticable between JU 1996 and JU 1998 in physique terms, on the bike.
I saw JU in person, in his civvies at the 1998 grand depart, and he was thin.
Very thin.
But compared to 1996, seeing him on the bike in 1998, he looked bigger on the bike.
But to see him in reality, the man was very very thin (in 1998).
In the 1996 TDF, JU pulled a lot for Riis.
It was very like the LA era. JU was doing what landis did for LA, except JU
was still there at the summit.
Maybe in the last kilometre he would ease off but it was astonishing to see
the Hautacam stage when Riis flew away from the field. JU was able to go with him.
In the final ITT, he beat BigMig by a minute and Riis by over two minutes.
