Jan Ullrich’s quiet return
Jan Ullrich, here at a public race four and a half years ago, is back in the saddle
Quelle: pa/Jan Woitas/dp
Jan Ullrich takes part in a cycling race on Mallorca again. After his public drug and alcohol crash, it’s another step back for the former professional. He has cleaned up his life, is fit and has plans.
Dhe news, pictures and videos that showed one of the greatest cycling talents that ever existed, that showed a former sports idol on the brink, are a thing of the past. Jan Ullrich fought his way back step by step. Or rather: fought your way into a new life. And bit by bit, never with a big bang, he revealed a little bit of it. That he will take part in a bike race again this Sunday? He could have cannibalized it for a show. He did nothing of the sort.
It is a quiet, carefully executed return of the former bicycle giant. Today it takes him 312 kilometers through Mallorca. The 47-year-old tour winner from 1997 started in the morning in the everyone’s race “Mallorca312”. Healthy, fit and optimistic. Why is he riding a racing bike again, why did he register for the race with start and finish in Playa de Muro? “Sport is my drug,” Ullrich replied to the organizer at the presentation the day before. In addition to the German, other ex-professionals such as Joseba Beloki have also reported.
“I’m back in cycling,” he announced according to the “Mallorca Zeitung” at the presentation and with a wink gave his strategy: “Attack fully from the start.” Ullrich’s plan for this Sunday is as follows: together with a friend Drive a full 312 kilometers – the starters have the choice between different route lengths. Most importantly, however, was a sentence from Ullrich outside of the sporting world: “I am very happy at the moment.”
“I had forgotten for a long time what is good for me”
Ullrich, who in addition to winning the Tour, also finished second five times in the Tour of France and in 2000 Olympic champion, experienced more than just falling from the pedestal of an idol after the doping revelations about the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. In 2018 it was at its lowest point. Drugs. Alcohol. False friends. Arrests. Ullrich had lost his footing. And the public watched.
“I was on Marco Pantani’s path. Almost dead, ”he confessed in a video podcast with Lance Armstrong in late September. The Italian professional cyclist Pantani was found dead in a hotel room in 2004 at the age of 34, having died of a cocaine overdose. “For a long time I had forgotten what is good for me: family, children, love, cycling, friends. That was my problem, “explains Ullrich in the podcast, and said to Armstrong:” Good friends, like you, brought me back to life. “Ullrich went into therapy.
Mike Baldinger is one of these important friends. The former motorcycle professional brought Ullrich back to Merdingen. Together they founded Jan Ullrich Marketing Deutschland GmbH. Today, the 47-year-old Ullrich reports in the podcast, he no longer drinks or smokes and has regular contact with his children. He is confident again.
Plans and ideas for the future
In June, Ullrich reappeared in public in a small group – at a citizens’ meeting in Merdingen. It was about the planned “Bike Center by Jan Ullrich” with a museum, bike workshop, restaurant and more, where Ullrich is one of the investors. Mike and Dirk Baldinger and Hanka Kupfernagel are also behind the project. At the citizens’ meeting, Ullrich also said two private sentences: “I had a very difficult phase. Fortunately, I’ve now got it over with. ”And:“ I’m very happy to be back in Merdingen. I really want to build something here. This is my home. “
After the video podcast, which showed him healthy and in a good mood on a terrace on Mallorca, Ullrich returned on October 1st with new social media appearances. “I cleaned up a bit. In life and now here too, ”he wrote. Step by step. Ullrich has plans again. “I have some good ideas, a great team around me. But everything is still at the beginning. ”
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