Your right, its not, but it's a harder cross to bear and in my book more tragic since there was no way for the rider to change his fate.

In this day and age of specialization its hard to make generalizations about who shoulda, woulda, coulda on any given day. I'm sure 90% of the pro peleton would give their eye teeth for Ullrichs palamares. Heck VDB's too. Him and Berzin really are the tops in wasted talent in the last 10 years. David Millar comes to mind too. He's proof that you cant party all the time and get by on natural talent alone. Not so much Jan as the others. So what if he was runner up too many times in the tour. He did win one. And many other things. Raymond Poulidor never won it at all or spent a day in yellow, yet rarely finished outside the top 5 in the umpteen times he rode the tour. I dont think anyone ever called him a slacker. Just unlucky.

One the other hand, how many classics did Armstrong win? 2 I think. Hincape? 2 also i think. You could say something about wasted talent there too. Lance had the talent to do a great many things, I just dont think he wanted too or was too wasted from the tour to bother. His attidude towards such things was that if he couldnt ride it to win it, why bother. The one day races these last 10 years have been a crap shoot, there's so much talent and parity out there. So basically Lance was was a one trick pony winning an event that favors his superior control freak nature. Hincape on the other hand is super talented and gifted but just does'nt have that leadership skills, mental edge or killer instinct to finish the job and is basically a super domsetique.

I would almost say VDB, but mental illness is a serious matter. I'd say his career was cut short by injury too. He was all but unbeatable until he went over the edge.

One name that hasnt been mentioned is that of Alex Zulle. Seems to me he shoulda done better than he did too. But like Ulrich, his palmares are pretty envious by pro standards too.

Lets add Michle Bartoli to the list too. Winning everthing in site, than nothing, than just faded away.