News for July 29, 1997

Big German Welcome for Ullrich

At a reception organized by the team sponsor, Deutsche Telekom, foreign minister Klaus Kinkel said that he couldn't wish for a better ambassador for Germany. Following the speeches, the team rode through the streets of Bonn in a car parade to meet the mayor in the city's Market Square, packed with at least 20,000 fans wearing pink Telekom hats and waving flags.

The mayor entered the names of Ullrich and his teammates in the city's ``Golden Book,'' an honor usually reserved for world leaders.

Ullrich was nearly speechless and said he didn't expect such a warm welcome. Deutsche Telekom had even come up with a special ``Team Telekom'' telephone presented to the cyclists and prominent guests. Kinkel politely refused his, saying ``I have enough telephones.''

Boxmeer Criterium

Ullrich was the star attraction at a 100-kilometer (62 mile) race on a short road track around this village close to the eastern Dutch border with Germany.

An exhausted-looking Ullrich, wearing his Tour de France winner's yellow jersey, could barely fight his way through the crowds to reach the start line for the event.

About 40,000 fans lined the streets of Boxmeer to watch the race, the first of a series of similar events that follow the grueling Tour.

The 23-year-old Ullrich Sunday became the first German to win the greatest cycling race in the world. The victory catapulted him to national hero status.

``In Germany tennis stars like Steffi Graf and Boris Becker are disappearing from the stage so he has come at just the right time,'' an unidentified German fan told Dutch television. Earlier Friday, in Bonn, Ullrich and other riders from his Deutsche Telekom team were feted by foreign minister Klaus Kinkel, who said he couldn't wish for a better ambassador for Germany. At least 20,000 fans packed into Bonn for the reception.

Boxmeer, NL, Profronde, July 28 1997

 1. Jan Ullrich (Ger) Telekom 100 km in 2.12.34
 2. Michael Boogerd (Ned)
 3. Eric Zabel (Ger) Telekom			 0.06
 4. Servais Knaven (Ned)
 5. Rolf Aldag (Ger)
 6. Eric Breukink (Ned) Rabobank
 7. Eddy Bouwmans (Ned) Foreldorado-Golff
 8. Bart Voskamp (Ned) TVM
 9. Eric Dekker (Ned)
10. Schinck (Ger)

Dernykoers:

 1. Bouwmans (Gemert/gangmaker Van Doorn)
 2. Moerenhout (Achthuizen/Zijlaard)
 3. De Koning (Zwartewaal/Fak)

Elite en neo-amateurs:

 1. Overveld (Schijf) 100 km in 2.18.12
 2. Bruinsma (Westerbork)
 3. Veen (Houten)

Duizel, NL, Women's Criterium

 1. Van Moorsel (Rotterdam) 70 km in 1.42.03
 2. Mansveld (Gasselternijveen)
 3. Smoorenburg (Langeraar)

UCI Rankings

More Ullrich stories

All across Europe and into the United States the comments were nearly unanimous that he should win more than one. Given his strength and the ease he won the title in only his second Tour -- he was second in his debut last year -- many were picking him to win until the next century.

``Nobody can really say that Jan Ullrich will win two, three, five or even more Tours de France but the only thing to note is that in the year 2001 he will be just 27, the same age the Miguel Indurain won the first of his five,'' said L'Equipe, the French sports daily.

The New York Times was more direct. ``By general agreement, the Jan Ullrich era has begun in the Tour de France.'' Of the four five-time winners of the Tour, only the late Jacques Anquetil was younger than Ullrich's 23 years 7 months and 25 days the first time any of them won the Tour.

The Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport compared Jan Ullrich to the Belgian Eddy Merckx. They both won the amateur world championship at the age of 19: Merckx in 1965 and Ullrich in 1993 at Oslo. Merckx then went on to win the first of his five Tours de France in 1969, at the age of 24, while Ullrich achieved victory at the age of 23.

Germany, naturally, was delighted with its new hero. More than 20,000 fans packed Bonn's Market square to greet Ullrich and his team on their return home.

Ullrich was in the German capital of Bonn for a reception in his honor. Sunday night he and his Telekom team had a private dinner at a luxury hotel in Paris to celebrate. The team can afford it. It earned more than 3 million French francs (dlrs 500,000) for the overall win by Ullrich, stage wins and high placings by the team. German newspapers brought out the superlatives to announce his victory.

``Yesterday, the 27th July, 1997 became a day chiseled in the history of sports in Germany. We are all celebrating a big moment in history and its glorious winner'' the newspaper Bild said. Other German champions were in awe of Ullrich.

Michael Schumacher, the two-time Formula One world champion, said ``I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, but when I reach my physical limits, Jan Ullrich would probably be only in the middle of his.''

``Jan Ullrich's performance was really unbelievable. Cycling is certainly the most demanding sport that there is,'' said Katarina Witt, the two-time Olympic figure skating champion. Ahead for Ullrich is a series of criteriums, exhibition races where he can pick up more than dlrs 10,000 for a hour or so of cycling in his yellow jersey as Tour de France champion. Also ahead for Ullrich will be a year of scrutiny and a growing pressure that the other German sports stars felt. He probably can only avoid that by getting on his bike.

Next year's Tour de France begins in Ireland July 11 to avoid the weekend of the World Cup final in France.

Given that Germany will be among the favorites for the soccer title, there are those that are suggesting a German month already for July 1998 in France.

Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich will have to pace himself to prevent burning out prematurely, his Belgian team director said on Monday.

"In coming seasons, we'll focus entirely on the Tour with Ullrich. No classics (one-day races), no growing too fast," Telekom team director Walter Godefroot told Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad.

He said he would allow the 23-year-old German to ride just one or two lucrative six-day races this winter. Ullrich will also skip the world championships in San Sebastian, Spain, in early October.

"Much too late," Godefroot said. "Jan rode the spring season...then he was under pressure for four weeks in Switzerland and the Tour. I don't want to endanger his future by keeping him going for another two months or more," he said. Godefroot, a former winner of the Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic races, warned against exaggerated expectations for Ullrich, who is widely believed to be capable of emulating or even surpassing Miguel Indurain's five successive victories.

He noted on BRTN radio on Monday that Russian Evgeny Berzin had never reached the same level again after the Tour of Italy in 1994.

"And the best example is (Italian Felice) Gimondi, Tour de France winner aged 22. Then there were (Belgian Eddy) Merckx, and (Spaniard Luis) Ocana, and he never won the Tour again," Godefroot said.

He said the Festina outfit of Frenchman Richard Virenque, who finished runner-up to Ullrich, had signed another potential winner, Swiss Alex Zuelle, and would provide even stronger opposition next year.

Godefroot said Ullrich also needed to develop his team leadership abilities. "He's still modest. I don't know whether he already realises what he's accomplished," he told De Morgen newspaper. "The difficult months will start now. How will he handle the pressure?...It is our task to protect him," he said.

He said Ullrich could have lost the Tour if the team had not intervened to cut back on the media fanfare. "There were camera crews and reporters waiting at his door at dawn, and it was the same song after each stage and in the evening. He was not even able to go to the toilet. Even there he was being bothered by pushy camera crews," he said. "Do you know that one day during the race he had to get off his bike for the call of nature because he didn't get the time before the start?" Godefroot told Het Nieuwsblad.

But he warned the team would be braced for media pressure next time round.

"Next year (Ullrich) will have matured further, and we'll be better organised to keep away the vultures," he said in a reference to an incident earlier in the Tour when camera crews trampled Bjarne Riis' bike when trying to interview Ullrich. "They are vultures who have no respect," Godefroot said.

A new era

"We have witnessed the birth of a champion," said Tour director Jean-Marie Le Blanc as Ullrich won the French classic on Sunday.

Ullrich could, though, go the way of another precocious Tour winner, Italian Felice Gimondi, who was only 22 when he triumphed for the first in 1965. Gimondi never won the race again.

But the 23-year-old German promises to be an enduring champion and looks set to emulate Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault with a long reign.

Anquetil and Hinault were also 23 when they won the first of their five titles. Laurent Fignon was the same age when he won his first of two.

Ullrich is four years younger than his idol Indurain was when the Spaniard won the first of five consecutive titles.

Indurain predicted Ullrich's victory when the German crushed all opposition in a time trial at the end of the 1996 Tour to finish second overall.

He must have seen something of himself in the East German-born youngster -- perhaps the result of similarities in their upbringing amid austere surroundings and strong values.

Ullrich appeared to have killed off all competition in the Tour halfway through when he followed his remarkable stage victory in Andorra with a devastating time trial in St Etienne to open up a lead of more than six minutes.

The signs appeared in the first Pyrenean stage when Ullrich looked to have the reserves to go out in front but stayed back out of loyalty to his team leader Bjarne Riis, the 1996 champion.

Ullrich astonished all onlookers with his strength in the saddle, never rising on to his pedals as he powered his way up the climbs in the manner of Indurain.

But fighting performances in the mountains from Frenchman Richard Virenque, backed by his Festina team, and climber supreme Marco Pantani of Italy, who had bravely overcome a terrible leg injury, kept the pot boiling almost to the finish.

Le Blanc pointed to the emergence of a foil for Ullrich in Virenque, probably sadly destined to be for the German what Italy's Claudio Chiappucci was to Indurain.

"We have seen someone (Virenque) capable of replying to (Ullrich) and must thank the presence of Marco Pantani," Le Blanc said.

Virenque hopes, however, to write a different script for future Tours.

He believes he is still young enough at 27 to aspire to a victory and that he played a major part in making the 1997 Tour the second fastest ever.

"Richard knows he'll win the Tour. He doesn't know when but he knows he'll succeed one day," Festina team manager Bruno Roussel said.

Virenque finished second, one step better than last year and the highest placing for a Frenchman since Hinault's last victory in 1985.

"We were here to win," Virenque said. "We tried everything to get the race moving."

But Virenque was more than nine minutes behind Ullrich, whose winning margin was the second highest in the last 50 years.

For Ullrich, winning was the fulfilment of a dream cherished since he first watched the Tour on television as a teenager at the East German national sports school in Berlin -- in secret, as television was strictly prohibited for the boarders.

Having turned professional in 1994, he began knocking on the Tour door a year later, complaining to Telekom team manager Walter Godefroot, who did not take him to France, that he was ready.

In 1996, Godefroot could no longer ignore the signs and when Ullrich, who had been due to go to the Olympic Games in Atlanta, was given a choice he did not hesitate in opting for the Tour.