More Tour News for July 27, 1997

Riis hates Disneyland ride

Teammate Jan Ullrich came in second in the 63 km penultimate stage, a time trial through Disneyland. The German was 45 seconds behind winner Abraham Olano of Spain, but Riis was nearly 10 minutes adrift after a nightmare ride.

The Dane, who has had more than his fair share of problems on this Tour, started badly when he slipped on his way to the start and damaged a pedal.

Then, like many of the hapless cartoon characters overseeing the start, he banged his knee after arriving 20 seconds late to sign on.

There was worse to come when he punctured early in the time trial and the subsequent wheel change went wrong, causing his chain to come off seconds later.

The furious Dane picked up his bike and slammed it on to the grass verge. As he stormed around in anger, his contrite team mechanics quickly handed him another machine.

He carried on but finished 93rd.

Riis may have been warmed by the words of his young successor, who said that his victory would have been impossible without a good team around him.

Ullrich reminded everybody that he came to the Tour to help Riis take a second successive crown.

"First I came here for Bjarne Riis, as I've said before, and I tried to help him as much as possible," said the German.

"Only after Riis said 'You are stronger,' did I see that I could try to go for it."

Last year, Ullrich won the penultimate leg time trial to cement second place overall behind Riis but said it was impossible to compare Saturday's stage with that victory.

"Last year Riis had the yellow jersey. This year I had the pressure," Ullrich said. "This year I was strong in the mountains and that was important."

But he is refusing to look beyond Sunday and the formality of the final stage on the Champs Elysees. Perhaps with what has happened to Riis in mind he played down talk of a succession of Tour victories.

"Let me win this one first," he said. "I'm already very happy with one."

Ullrich

Ullrich, 23, was the overall winner in only his second Tour and the first German to triumph in cycling's greatest race.

His teammate Eric Zabel, 27, also an East German product, won the green jersey for the points winner of the race for the second successive year.

Their victories are a testament to the East German system and their attention to minute detail.

Ullrich, for instance, demands a 90-minute back massage, while the rest of his Telekom team take only an hour combined.

The new maestro of cycling first served notice of his ability to threaten the established order when he took the 1993 amateur world championship road race.

He showed he had champion-like judgment when he turned down the chance of going to the Olympics last year, opting instead to ride in the Tour -- where he finished second.

Zabel showed a steely determination to win at all costs by headbutting Frenchman Dominique Nazon in a typically eventful sprint to the line during the sixth stage. He was later declassified from the stage but in the long term will threaten Irishman Sean Kelly's record of four green jersey victories in the Tour.

"Kelly's record is the one every sprinter has as his dream of breaking and, as I am accustomed to achieving my goals, I feel confident of doing it," Zabel said.

Ullrich, who was one of three children was brought up by his mother in Rostock after his father deserted them, and Zabel, born in East Berlin, have assumed command of the German team Telekom after Dane Bjarne Riis led them to victory last year -- something which Ullrich admitted was difficult to take in Germany.

"It is hard for Germans to understand why a Dane was leading the team and they would prefer a German to be the chief ... but having said that, if Riis hadn't won last year Telekom might not have maintained their sponsorship," Ullrich said.

The significance of the pair's dual triumph could be gauged as several thousand Germans descended on the Swiss town of Fribourg to welcome them -- attention the red-headed, earring-adorned Ullrich had not been used to prior to the 1996 Tour.

"Last year I'd have been hard pressed to be recognized by my postman. Now the team media center has to field all the calls and I get some pretty odd requests!" Ullrich said.

Ullrich, who lives with his girlfriend Gabi and has been guided for the past 10 years by fellow former East German Peter Becker, paid tribute to his years under the German system.

"They worked you until you thought that pain was the only feeling that existed," he recalled. "It was difficult to imagine what rewards could come from this, particularly as then the Wall was still up and the idea of becoming a professional was remote.".

Ullrich got turned on to the Tour through grainy black and white television images while Zabel, who finished fourth in the 1992 Olympic road race, reveled in the rather labored progress of Olaf Ludwig, a winner of the Peace Race, as a professional.

"Olaf taught me everything I needed to know. When he went (from the Telekom team) I was ready to sprint and to win," Zabel said.

The pair will certainly now be targets for other teams. There were rumors that Spanish team Banesto were seeking to sign Ullrich.

Their leader Abraham Olano has performed respectably but in a team that grew used to dominating the Tour -- through five-time winner Miguel Indurain -- it has not been good enough.

Zabel, too, would be an attraction for major teams as he has shown he is in a different class to rival sprinters.