Jan Ullrich is back in life. The former Tour de France winner recently chatted about his serious drug addiction on the podcast of his former rival Lance Armstrong – now he sent a message on Instagram.
Jan Ullrich is fit again. The former Tour de France winner posted a photo on Instagram. It shows him in a racing bike outfit in the mountains of Mallorca with a panoramic background. “I cleaned up a bit. In life and now here too. ???? I’m looking forward to the new beginning. More on that soon.”
Just a few days ago, the former cycling superstar confessed in a podcast of his former rival Lance Armstrong that he had survived a severe drug addiction in recent years. “I felt really bad three years ago,” he said. “You (Armstrong, editor’s note) visited me and I was on the same path as Marco Pantani – almost dead.” The Italian cycling star Pantani died in 2004 of a cocaine overdose, the exact circumstances of the death have not yet been clarified.
Ullrich wants to accelerate again
The Instagram posting fits Ullrich’s new life. In the podcast he said of his drug addiction: “I slept three years and needed the time for myself. But now my brain is clear again, my body is fit. I have some ideas and can tell more next time.”
Armstrong and Ullrich had fought legendary duels at the Tour de France in the early 2000s, from which Armstrong always emerged as the winner. Ullrich only had a real chance of defeating the Texan in 2003, but fell in the rainy last time trial. Armstrong were later revoked and not reassigned all seven Tour victories because of doping, Ullrich is still in the results lists.
Jan Ullrich: Cycling is good
However, Ullrich was withdrawn from the race in 2006 shortly before the start of the tour because he and other top stars had been exposed as a customer of the Spanish doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Then the crash followed. “After all that shit 15 years ago I forgot what is good for me,” said Ullrich on the podcast. “Cycling is good and being with my friends, my children and my family is good for me. I forgot all that and that was my problem.”
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