Ulrich
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TBRAVO posted 1 year ago.
I thought about starting a thread on this but got busy at work. I am a huge Ullrich fan and will miss seeing him race. Actually Jan did have several offers from other teams, but like always Jan does everything on his own terms. Patrick O’Grady of Velonews blasted him, but everyone is entitled to his own opinion. He won the TdF in 97 and was runner up 5 times! I bet LA wouldn’t have won 7 times if he got busted for amphetamines and partied like a frat boy. I have to retire my T-Mobile Jersey now.:(
- T
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wesmeyer11 posted 1 year ago.
I am a huge Ulrich fan as well. I loved the way he challenged LA and didn't back down to him and he was willing to suffer, or at least looked the part, like no one else. Don't retire that jersey - keep it alive!
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mdd posted 1 year ago.
One less doper is always a good thing. I am glad to see Ulrich retire although I do have to say that I enjoyed watching Armstrong crush Ulrich's dreams year after year after year after year...
muhahahahaha
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RV posted 1 year ago.
wesmeyer11;63369 wrote:
I am a huge Ulrich fan as well. I loved the way he challenged LA and didn't back down to him and he was willing to suffer, or at least looked the part, like no one else. Don't retire that jersey - keep it alive!
Thought it was the other way around.
Lance challenged him and Ulrich was never up to it.
Always the bridesmaid to Lance!
RV
It takes a long time to get good. - Scott Molina
Slow is smooth; smooth is fast. - Rich Strauss
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mdd posted 1 year ago.
wesmeyer11;63369 wrote:
I am a huge Ulrich fan as well. I loved the way he challenged LA and didn't back down to him and he was willing to suffer, or at least looked the part, like no one else. Don't retire that jersey - keep it alive!
He never challenged Lance, he got CRUSHED by Lance because Ulrich is lazy and would rather spend an hour on the trainer inside during the offseason (assuming he trained at all) while Lance was outside doing a 5-6 hour training ride while it was pouring down rain.
You can't fake heart or the desire of a champion. You either have it or you don't...
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TBRAVO posted 1 year ago.
Yeah I agree that LA was always better prepared. Too bad Jan couldn’t race the 1999 TdF, probably would have delayed LA’s first victory. IF by some miracle I could keep up, I would much rather train with Jan than Lance. Afterwards we could go party and hang out with the TriFuel GGW…oh wait..that’s a different thread.
- T
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wesmeyer11 posted 1 year ago.
mdd;63391 wrote:
Lance was outside doing a 5-6 hour training ride while it was pouring down rain.
A Nike commercial is always a reliable resource for information. On another note - Ulrich may have cheated but none of you know that and besides, what are you relying on - the fact that he was linked to operation puerto? Well, if you give that validity, which there may be, then I think you same people who swear LA was clean all his life have to raise eyebrows about the fact that more than a few cyclists around him when he was winning were doping.
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TBRAVO posted 1 year ago.
mdd;63391 wrote:
You can't fake heart or the desire of a champion. You either have it or you don't...
Gee…Ullrich did pretty well for not having the heart of a champion.
Olympic Gold medal in Road-Race, Olympic Silver Medal in Time-Trial.
2 time World Time-Trial Champion, won Vuelta a España…
Took 2nd place in his very first TdF, won the TdF in 97 (youngest rider to win the TdF).
LA’s 7 TdF victories would have been LESS spectacular without Jan; probably would have been pretty boring.
- T
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mdd posted 1 year ago.
TBRAVO;63399 wrote:
LA’s 7 TdF victories would have been LESS spectacular without Jan; probably would have been pretty boring.
- T
I will agree with you on that part, watching Lance crush the dreams of Germany by destroying their favorite son did add to the overall excitement of the event.
The biggest problem I have with Ulrich (besides the fact he is a doper) is that he is one of those people with all the talent in the world but never had the work ethic and just took the easy road. A guy like Armstrong had incredible talent but only was a champion because he out worked everyone else.
Athletes like Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Mark Allen, TigerWoods, and other great champions set themselves apart by their work ethic which I think is something that the everyday man/woman who has to work 40+ hours a week and then still find time for faith/family/training can relate to and respect.
I have no problem with fans of Ulrich because he did achieve a high level of success, but I just am not one of those fans.
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MaverickUNC posted 1 year ago.
I'm a huge Lance fan but you can't say Jan never had "the work ethic" or "just took the easy road." As TBRAVO stated previously, Jan has an incredibly impressive record. Compared to Lance he may have taken an easier road but Lance was a maniac and nearly impossible to work with. He also achieved his high level of success and his 7 TdF victories because he had an excellently managed team that would close gaps, keep other riders in check, and eventually lead Lance to victory. We age-groupers can debate and monday-morning qb this all we want but we have no inkling about what it takes to be at a TdF level. The media is a powerful tool.
They are both incredible athletes and cycling is losing a great rider. As for the doping, I try not to believe anything the media says- Everyone in their eyes is guilty by association or some strung-out idiot because it's much easier to assume things and it sells more papers. Innocent until proven guilty.
"I run because it always takes me where I want to go" -Dean Karnazes
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dr_rios_ec posted 1 year ago.
I think seeing Ulrich is sad, a true champion, probably not a hard worker, but an awesome rider. That he is a doper? well, that is going to be in the air for years to come. I personally think that his retirement is part of all the mess left after each scandal about drugs in the sport. I think the aftermath is not over yet....
I am glad that he had the balls to tell some what he thinks and stand for himself.
-Santiago
"Man!! Defeat is worse than dying, cause´you have to live with it" -My Dad
"It ain´t about how hard you can hit...it is how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward"-Rocky Balboa
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TBRAVO posted 1 year ago.
mdd;63402 wrote:
...but never had the work ethic and just took the easy road....
Wow, what’s your idea of “the easy road”?
Jan came from the East Germany Athletics Program…I am sure that’s a piece of cake.:rolleyes:
To say Jan is not disciplined, or has a bad work ethic is ridiculous. He won the TdF and took second place 5 times. I am not an expert but I think you need to be pretty disciplined to pull that one off. He probably was pushed in his adolescence far more than Lance was. Unfortunately this probably led to some level of burn-out and associated bad behavior later on.
Regarding drug use…who knows….no real charges were raised.
That's what I like about Trifuel, we can agree to disagree! I admire and respect LA for his acheivements but I am not an LA fan.
-T
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Anton posted 1 year ago.
I'm not a hero worshiper of any sort...In some respects LA and JU are both tragic figures. Jan might be a doper. Might not. Lance wasn't a doper, or maybe he was. We'll never know.
I think if you put the list of all of Jan's wins and finishes next to Lance's, Jan's would be longer. For years he raced the classics and shorter races that Lance ignored. Tbravo's list is only partial.
It was exciting to see them throw themselves at the mountains and and achieve what I could only dream of. Trained or undertrained, it was...magnificent.
"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" - Vincent Van Gogh
My Blog: http://agingsuperhero.blogspot.com
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JRH posted 1 year ago.
I liked Jan. thought it was impressive how he was trying to outgrow his partying ways
shame he was never able to catch up to lance.
proud and high or low and humble - many miles before I go
http://www.insidetri.com/portal/blogs/blog.asp?strSession=60050327224390...
I guess BBB is realy into his IMAZ training because this is one thread I bet he would have started.
Anyone else cached the news about Ulrich´s press conference?
I have read different versions of it and it was pretty brutal (at least in the versions I read)
He was said to welcome the press with something like "It´s nice to see old familiar faces around here, but I see also a few black sheep who are most defenitly not welcome here" Apparently a couple of reporters that wrote a lot of bad things about him after last year´s spain conecction scandal.
In the end I guess he only wanted to make oficial his retirement cause last year after T-Mobile fired him I was sure he would´n compete again. I mean what team would hire a guy his age. I still believe Basso would have been last years champ if he had raced but I bet Ulrich would have been again in 2nd place.
Aparently his going to work with an Austrian team this season as tech staff or something similar.
Hyperactive Trifueler!!!! (I refuse to let the status go :p)