tekhna

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...pr06/apr25news

I'm very curious to see how he does. I love Jan, not going to lie. Hope he can pull it together, if not he just needs to call it quits at the end of this season.



The Tour de Romandie, which starts today in Switzerland, will see the long-awaited return to racing of T-Mobile star Jan Ullrich. However, Ullrich's eyes are not on the prizes at Romandie, but on the longer-term goal of the Tour de France.

"I'm not at the Tour de Romandie to win stages or the overall classification, I'm here to prepare for the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France," Ullrich said on Monday, according to Reuters.

"It's not going to be easy because some of the stages of the race are tough but my goal is to get to the finish in Lausanne. I expect to suffer in the mountains but there is nothing I can do about that."

Ullrich plans to ride the Giro d'Italia in May and peak for the Tour de France in July. He was scheduled to start racing much earlier in the season, but has been suffering from a knee problem, which he said recently is now clear. "I'm completely back on track. Now I can put my push hard on the pedals and my knee doesn't hurt. Even after doing speed training, where I pace behind a motorbike, I don't have any problems anymore."

Nevertheless, starting almost two months behind Tour rivals such as Ivan Basso means Ullrich has a lot of ground to make up and he realizes getting into shape by July is going to hurt. "My plans for the season were different and the Giro will be hard but now I have to make the best of it," he said.

"I've been able to train hard for two weeks. This has given me a lot of confidence for the future."

Jakey

The jan will be crushing the souls of the weak.

TheKillerPenguin

His twin pillars of pleasure and pain will have Basso blended into marinara sauce in no time.

wabbit

let's hope so... he's not going for the win, but it's a climber's race for sure. Italians have traditionally done pretty well.

Dead Roman

the basso will be mashed between the thigh beasts like oh so much mashed up stuff!

domestique

All this talk about Jan's thighs are starting to scare me .

If he does well in this race then I see him winning the tour. If he does bad, then I could see hiim slack of, and not do the tour, or get second place AGAIN!

pcastlouis

That hairball primavera will not stand a chance against Jan's twin colossi of pain.

RockyMtnMerlin

He didn't look too good today in the TdR prologue

catbus

Der Kaiser was 26 seconds off the pace!

"Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) won Tuesday's prologue as the 60th edition of the Tour de Romandie got under way in Geneva.

The Italian finished the 3.4km course in 4:27:32, with ProTour leader Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears) second in 4:27:95 and Bradley McGee (Française des Jeux) third in 4:31:38.

T-Mobile's Jan Ullrich, making his racing debut for this season, finished in 4:53:48."

https://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/9789.0.html

tekhna

The pictures (the one anyways) make it look like he isn't awfully chubs, but still 90th place is abysmal.

wabbit

i'm sure he's not thrilled with it but short TTs aren't his thing anyways....it's his first race. He'll ride into form during Romandie. I am sure he'll start to show better form as it goes on. I guess with the GIro this year he probably won't do the Tour De Suisse.

SenorCardgage

Are you kidding me? Look at the stomach - that thing is a keg! I bet every time he pedals he knocks the wind out of himself, especially in the more aero position.

merlinextraligh

it's too bad Ullrich is so far behind on his plan. This year's TDF is designed for him, but I'm doubting he can be on form in time.

catbus

Ulle is now in 90th place in the GC (out of 159 active riders) after the first open stage! Meanwhile on a more serious note, Robbie McEwen was first to the line. The guy's got some guns!

https://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006...ts/romandie061

https://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/9794.0.html

DocRay

Yeah, all italian derogatory redneck comments aside, Ullrich has been getting far too much credit in the last few years -he was fat and slow in 05, and he's just whining in 06, it's over.
The 06 Giro is a climber's race and heavily favours Basso. Basso finished top 10 at Liege-Bastogne-Liege without even intending to do anything but support Schleck.

Dead Roman

He is just inhaling, it seems every picture of jan is on the inhale when the stomache is pooched out.

CyLowe97

Yo DocRay... We all know Basso and CSC are a force to be reckoned with and that they are pretty much the team to beat (heck, look at the way they controlled L-B-L on Sunday... they are strong!), but you gotta check out the comments from Der Kaiser himself... he's got a blog... folks above are pretty much quoting him! https://www.myspace.com/kaiserjan

Enjoy the genius of Der Jan!

Cypress

????

Duke of Kent

DocRay, you really need to get off the whole "all americans are redneck, descriminatory bigots" train of thought. If you took the time to have a sense of humor, you'd see that the above comments are from a blog posted on myspace.com, and are in fact, ::gasp::, funny. So before you go on labeling me and the rest of the people in US as rednecks (even though you have no clue where most of us are from, or if we are in fact from the US), you should relax a wee bit, think about the context of the postings before and after something that gets you riled up, and make a more informed decision to post.


Thanks,


Duke of Kent
Redneck from a multi-racial family.
Currently living in a redneck county of a redneck state working a VERY redneck job.

CyLowe97

Those are his reading glasses... for the cue sheet taped to his handlebars.... you know, in case the radio to the DS doesn't work...

Cypress

4:01.55 Sit in.
4:01.56 Sit in.
4:01.57 Sit in.
4:01.58 Sit in.
4:01.59 Sit in.
4:02.00 Sit in.
4:02.01 Sit in.
4:02.02 Sit in.
4:02.03 Sit in.
4:02.04 Sit in.
4:02.05 ATTACK!!!

mnutini

For being out of shape year after year, Jan has managed to finish on the podium in the TdF. He's not my pick for this year but you can't write him off.

Richard Cranium

I suspect there must be a ton of internal or "imagined" pressure on Ulrich. The last thing this guy wanted in the first TDF without Lance was to have to show up late with his training.

It's going to take a tremendous amount of self-control and discipline to comeback to form. He's in a lose-lose situation. If he holds back and doesn't show some form, he risks his own self doubts and ability.

If he goes too hard and ends up hurting, just to show he's got some legs, he risks his chances in the Tour.

The best comebacks are the type that aren't expected. Jan would be better off if people wrote him off now.

I predict Jan, bombs out either before or early in the Tour......... End of sad story.........

thad

Umm, he's like 26 secs down. I don't think he's sweating it at this point.

TheKillerPenguin

Mark my words, the tour is Ullrich's this year. He's been back on his bike for only two weeks and he's racing well enough to hang in with the pack. Watch him roar back to form in a month or two.