Jan Ullrich
| Home > J > Jan Ullrich |
|
Biography
Jan Ullrich is a German professional road bicycle racer who won the Tour de France in 1997.
Jan Ullrich was born on December 2, 1973 in Rostock, Germany. Ullrich was always good at cycling since a young age. When he was just nine years old, he won his first bicycle race at school. He studied in the sports training system of the German Democratic Republic, and in 1986 joined the SC Dynamo sports school in Berlin. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, Ullrich shifted to Hamburg with his trainer, Peter Sager.
In 1993, Ullrich won the Amateurs Road World Championship in Oslo. In 1995, he became a professional member of Team Telekom.
In 1996, Ullrich rode in his first Tour de France on the Telekom team. He finished at a sensational second place just 1:41 minutes behind his teammate, Denmark's Bjarne Riis.
In 1997, Ullrich won Tour de France and Riis ended up in a supporting role in Ullrich's win over Richard Virenque of France and Marco Pantani of Italy. Ullrich became the first German to win the Tour de France and the German press nicknamed him "The Terminator". He was selected "Sports Person of the Year 1997" in Germany.
In 1998, Ullrich finished second and Marco Pantani of Italy won the 1998 Tour de France.
Due to a knee injury, Ullrich didn't take part in the 1999 Tour de France- American Lance Armstrong won it for the first time. Ullrich, however, won the Vuelta a Espana that year defeating the Spaniards, Igor Gonzalez Galdeano and Roberto Heras. He also became the world time trial champion that year.
In 2000, Ullrich came second in the 2000 Tour de France, which was won by Lance Armstrong. Ullrich won the gold medal for Germany at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
In 2001 also, Ullrich finished second behind Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France. The 2001 Tour was marred by his crash during which Armstrong apparently waited in a display of sportsmanship till Ullrich returned to his bike.
In May 2002, Ullrich was involved in a drunk driving incident and his driver's license was temporarily cancelled. Following this, Ullrich tested positive for amphetamine in June 2002. His contract with Team Telekom was ended and he was banned from the game for six months. He thus missed the 2002 Tour de France.
In 2003, Ullrich returned to the Tour de France and finished second behind Lance Armstrong losing by just 61 seconds in a memorable race. During the race, Ullrich was leading at the time Armstrong fell. Ullrich, displaying sportsmanship, waited for Armstrong to remount the bike. However, Armstrong was misled into believing that Ulrich had not waited and went on to win the race. That year, the Germans selected him as the "Sports Person of the Year".
In 2004, Ullrich was taken back in Team Telekom renamed T-Mobile. He finished Tour de France at the fourth place lagging 8:50 behind Armstrong.
In the 2005 Tour de France, Ullrich finished third behind Lance Armstrong and Ivan Basso of Italy.
In 2005, Ullrich split from his long-time partner Gaby Weiss. He had lived with her from 1994 in Merdingen, Germany and they have a baby, Sarah. They allegedly split because Weiss wanted to be away from the limelight, while Ullrich wanted to enjoy his celebrity status.
Links
Jan Ullrich
Related Celebrities
Christian Ziege
Dietmar Hamann
Jens Lehmann
Michael Ballack
Michael Schumacher
Miroslav Klose
Oliver Bierhoff
Ralf Schumacher
Regina Halmich
Robert Prosinecki
