Cycling
Jan Ullrich – The rise and fall of a German sports hero
The former German cyclist Jan Ullrich will be 50 years old in December. photo
© Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone/dpa
The 1997 Tour de France champion is in heaven and hell, as he himself says. He wants to clear up his eventful life in a documentary.
Success story and thrilling duels with Armstrong
From now on, every July, millions of people gather in front of the television and suffer for hours with Ullrich as he climbs the mountain giants in the Alps and the Pyrenees. Sponsors and organizers are lining up. Ullrich is everyone’s darling, the pop star on two wheels. The type of buddy who likes to go overboard in the winter and carry around a few extra pounds.
This is followed by thrilling duels with his great opponent Lance Armstrong, who is always a little faster in the end. The obsessed Texan, who was cured of cancer, won the Tour of France seven times, using illegal means, as it later turns out. Ullrich’s popularity should not suffer as a result. In addition to his overall victory in 1997, Ullrich finished second on the Tour five times. He becomes world champion and Olympic champion.
End of career after Fuentes scandal
When Ullrich made another attack on the Tour throne after Armstrong’s retirement in 2006, reports from Spain about the large-scale “Operacion Puerto” made waves. Ullrich is exposed as a customer of the doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and removed from the starting field before the tour. His T-Mobile team pulled the emergency brake and Ullrich’s career ended in one fell swoop. Many of his former teammates such as Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag confess to doping. You always hear the same sentence from Ullrich: “I didn’t cheat on anyone.” He remains silent – possibly out of fear of the financial consequences.
Ullrich withdraws. In 2010 he announced on his homepage that he was suffering from burnout syndrome. In terms of sports law, his case was concluded in 2012 with a ban by the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (Cas), and all successes from May 1, 2005 were revoked. Shortly afterwards, Ullrich at least acknowledged the Fuentes treatments in a “Focus” interview. Meanwhile, in a 2013 report by the French Senate’s Anti-Doping Commission, he was found to have used Epo during the 1998 Tour, which is no longer relevant under sports law.
Crash in Mallorca
Ullrich’s name is ostracized by the media, sponsors and organizers. As high as he was once celebrated, his fall is now just as low. Only for the fans he continues to be the popular “Ulle”, who is still celebrated on the side of the road during the tour in Germany in 2017. Ullrich moves to Mallorca with his wife and children, but after 13 years their marital happiness falls apart.
Ullrich surrounds himself with shady guys, cocaine and whiskey rule his life. After an argument with neighbor and TV star Til Schweiger, Ullrich ends up in jail for one night and a short time later in the private clinic for addictions. One of the first visitors is Armstrong, who helps his old rival.
New beginning in Germany
Ullrich returns to Germany, lives in the seclusion of Merdingen, close to his four children. He wants to leave his eventful life behind him. “I was in heaven and I was in hell. Now I’m back on earth, on the way to the middle,” says Ullrich to “Stern”. He will be 50 years old in December. Before that, he wants to tell what everything was like in the documentary “Jan Ullrich – The Hunted”, which can be seen on Amazon Prime from November 28th. A step that he would probably have made better 17 years ago.