Ex-professional cyclist Jan Ullrich admits to years of doping: “If you want to keep up, you have to take part”
Jan Ullrich speaks more openly than ever about doping, alcohol and drug excesses – and how his love for his children saved his life
© Nico Kurth / stern
“I never cheated on anyone,” Jan Ullrich once said. Now it is clear: the athlete did not tell the truth. In an interview with the stern he speaks for the first time about his reasons for doing so.
For the first time, former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich speaks in detail about the blood doping he did during his time as a telecom professional in order to improve his performance. “If you want to keep up, you have to take part,” said Ullrich in an interview with stern. He quickly submitted to this compulsion after joining Team Telekom as a professional in 1995.
Interview
Ex-cycling professional Jan Ullrich on drugs, alcohol and doping fraud: “I wasn’t far from death”
49 minutes ago
Doping felt “completely normal” back then. “The general attitude was: If you don’t do this, how will you survive in a race?” Ullrich describes doping as a necessity in order to keep up. “Without helping, the widespread perception at the time was that it would be like going to a gunfight armed only with a knife.”
Jan Ullrich: “I didn’t want to be a traitor”
Ullrich was excluded from the Tour de France in 2006 because he was found to have connections to the Spanish doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Dem stern He said he regretted not having cleared the air earlier. But that wouldn’t have been possible back then. “In 2006 I wasn’t able to talk because I didn’t want to be a traitor.” This scenario was outlined to him again and again: “The lawyers told me: Either you go out and tear everything down, or you don’t say anything at all. I decided on the second recommendation at the time. Because tearing everything down would also have meant that I “I’m dragging a lot of people down with me into the abyss.”
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