le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.

net/blog/archives/14

July 10th, 2010

le grimpeur
A cycling blog for everything climbing

Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich

Guy WR posted in Climbers, Doping on April 9th, 2007

There is much more that can be written on doping and climbing. Of particular interest is the apparent
disappearance of the ‘pure climber’ in the peloton, the gifted grimpeur that can blow a major race apart with
specialized climbing skills. This disappearance is probably overstated, and many grimpeurs have shone in
races other than the Tour de France in recent years.

The broader point is made, however, that faster average speeds on flatter stages such as in the Tour have
made it difficult for pure climbers to hold on to the peloton and conserve their energy for the mountains.
Whether this is a Tour phenomena, or due to doping or better training for all riders, is another issue.

In a series of posts, I’ve covered some of the implications on climbing of doping in professional cycling,
including a two-part discussion of Marco Pantani (part 1 and part 2). It seems timely to take a break from this
particular series and focus more on some of the positive aspects of great climbers and climbs. Still, it seems
impossible to move on without making some comment on recent revelations on doping by Jan Ullrich, a
constant presence in the mountains over the last decade, particularly in the Tour de France.

While Operacion Puerto largely collapsed in Spain, apparently due to an incomplete domestic legal
framework to deal with sports doping, German investigators were able to use a DNA sample to positively link
the blood found in the clinic raids with Jan Ullrich.

Sadly, despite the circumstantial evidence found by the Guardia Civil linking both Ullrich and mentor Rudy
Pevenage to Eufemiano Fuentes’ doping ring, and now this absolute proof this it was his blood in the clinic –
matching all the code names and other schedules of drug use that Fuentes kept – Ullrich continues to deny the
accusations.

“That does not change the fact that I have a clean conscience,” Ullrich said on his website this month and
widely reported. “In my entire career I have never cheated or used anybody, and I can’t admit to a failure
that doesn’t exist. I am not afraid of any trial, any prosecuting attorney or any federation.”

A prosecution for sporting fraud in Germany and perhaps other charges seems likely, but could take months
or even years to be completed, according to reports.

Ullrich seems to be taking to well-blazed trail of other alleged dopers by denying everything, despite mounting
evidence implicating his guilt. One might consider this to be a fraught tactic and the result of poor legal and
media advice. But perhaps with a long trial looming, protesting one’s innocence is the best course of action to
take until a possible plea bargain or other deal can be made.

Still, if it is bad advice, or bad choices by Ullrich, it would not be the first time in his career.

Ullrich was often cited as the future of cycling early in his career, or name-checked by Lance Armstrong as

1 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47
le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/14

the most talented bike rider around. But, as is well known, he struggled with good training habits, injuries, and
made poor personal choices such as his conviction for ecstasy use that saw him fail to start the Tour de
France in 2002 and his dismissal from the Telekom squad.

Telekom were continually frustrated with both Ullrich and Pevenage and relations in the team were poor.
Pevenage took Ullrich to Team Coast in January 2003 and Ullrich also started working with Luigi Cecchini.
When Team Coast collapsed, Ullrich rode for Bianchi in the 2003 Tour with an impressive performance. But
some poor tactical decisions in the race, and poor equipment choices for the final time trial in the rain (as well
as a failure to recon the course) may have cost him the win.

Riding against Armstrong in 2003

Back with the renamed T-Mobile in 2004 and 2005, all seemed to be patched up. Ullrich rode strongly in both
years, although failed to podium in 2004. In that year, Ullrich was criticized for tiring himself on early flat
stages by using – as he always did – very high gearing and for attacking too early in the mountains (a
recurring Ullrich tactic, it would seem). In both 2004 and 2005, team tactics left many commentators
confused, with Kloden riding largely for himself, despite his protestations otherwise, and the team chasing
down Alexander Vinokourov in 2005.

Still, despite these criticisms, Ullrich had a stellar racing career, which is well known and need not be repeated
here. In the mountains, except perhaps in 1997, he was less than exciting. His approach was simple: ride an
individual time trial on every climb. It was simple and often effective and many other riders could simply not
escape from his steady pacemaking. (At least one could on a consistent basis: Lance Armstrong.) Ullrich
followed the Indurain template to the letter: gain time in the time trials and limit loses in the mountains. It
lacked colour, but it was brutally effective.

Despite the criticisms levelled against him, Ullrich was always a serious competitor and a serious contender,
as his results show. One only needs to watch his performances in the Tour over the last ten years to see his
pain and his suffering and his serious-minded approach to racing. And some of his riding was awe-inspiring.

2 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47
le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/14

Jan always knew how to suffer

What a sad footnote to an illustrious career, then. But many serious questions remain unanswered. One can
only hope that the truth will be forthcoming; this writer would like to see four questions, in particular,
answered in the case of Jan Ullrich.

Firstly, at what point did Ullrich start doping with Fuentes (assuming, in light of all the evidence made public
so far that he was indeed part of the doping ring)? One is tempted to see the 2002 dismissal by Telekom as a
pivotal event, or perhaps 2004’s failure to podium in the Tour. But perhaps Ullrich’s alleged doping was
simply a decision made for the 2006 season in an attempt to secure a final Tour win?

Secondly, was there a Cecchini-Fuentes connection, which was alleged by the Operacion Puerto
documentation but without detailed elaboration? With Tyler Hamilton, Ivan Basso, and Jan Ullrich – all
coached by Cecchini – having all been linked to Fuentes (and Hamilton convicted of blood doping, despite
protestations of innocence), there remains a curious set of linkages that has little more than circumstantial
evidence to support it but a scent of serious coincidence.

Thirdly, was Ullrich doping in team Telekom in the 1990s? Last month, a former soigneur, Jef D’hondt,
alleged on Belgian television that EPO had been used by Telekom riders in the 1990s and Bjarne Riis was
named, although Ullrich was not.

According to the program, former Telekom team manager Walter Godefroot confirmed that he had heard of
EPO use on the team but said: “We have learned enough already; let us leave the past behind and
concentrate on the future.” For Riis, who has had allegations levelled at him before (see here), he responded,
according to reports, by saying: “He [D'hondt] has no validation for the allegations he is making.”

It was a difficult year for Riis in 1999, with more allegations made by Danish media about his riding. In
Germany, Der Spiegel ran an article about alleged doping in Telekom and team members, including Ullrich,
threatened court action and secured an injunction against further stories by the paper.

The IM exchange between Frankie Andreu and Jonathan Vaughters, cited in the SCA court case against
Lance Armstrong, contains an interesting nugget. While this conversation was widely cited by the authors as
‘kidding around’, it does discuss certain doping practices by some and the absence of doping by others.
Vaughters suggested that, according to Kevin Livingston, who rode for Telekom in 2001, that “after 2000″
Ullrich never rode with a haematocrit count of “over 42%” – conceivably his natural level. The tone of the
exchange suggests that there was a change in practice towards cleaner riding by Ullrich and many others in
the peloton, but perhaps it was just idle chit-chat.

3 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47
le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/14

A great rider in full flight

Fourthly, in the mind of this writer, there remains one final question to be answered: was Ullrich doped as a
teenager in East Germany?

In 1986, at age 13, Ullrich started at the SC Dynamo sports school in Berlin. At age 15, in 1988, he was
champion of the GDR, before the collapse of the country in 1989. He stayed at the school until 1992 before
moving to Hamburg, which saw him win the amateur road race title in 1993, aged just 19, before a 2nd place
in the Tour in 1996 then 1st in 1997, aged 23.

As doping court cases in Germany from 1998-2000 revealed, SC Dynamo was at the centre of a state-wide,
state-sponsored doping program involving hundreds of athletes, many of them teenagers, right up until 1989.
As detailed in Dr. Steven Ungerleider’s book Faust’s Gold, testosterone was the drug of choice for
performance enhancement, leading to massive growth in muscle mass but also allowing harder training and
speedier recovery. Sports including track and field, swimming, and cycling were all massively doped.

The doping of GDR female swimmers were the most high-profile cases dealt with in the courts, principally
due to the serious health repercussions from the use of testosterone. The cases revealed, however, that the use
of drugs and masking agents was commonplace and routine, and part of training and competing for a large
number of GDR athletes. Younger athletes were told that the pills they took and the injections received were
simply vitamins, and many did not actually know that they had been doped until many years later, despite
their questions about physical changes that had taken place.

Drug testing in the 1980s made detection a risk, but German laboratories also prepared artificial
epitestosterone to be injected so as to preserve the 6:1 ratio between testosterone and epitestosterone that had
been set at the limit and for which the drug tests were looking for. (Floyd Landis’ ratio was reportedly 11:1,
although it has been alleged that he had low levels of epitestosterone.) Also, to evade drug tests, other types
of steroids were used, as well as strict monitoring of athletes to allow the scheduling of drug taking to evade
testing at competitions.

Reports have also suggested that many of the training practices, including doping, continued following the
reunification of Germany, as many GDR coaches continued in their sports roles, but without state support.

Werner Franke, long a campaigner against doping and one of the central figures in revealing the use of drugs
in the GDR, has seen the previously secret files on many of the doped athletes but has not mentioned
Ullrich’s name. So far, the only connection, reported by the BBC, is that Ullrich won a case defending himself
against Franke’s media accusation that he had bought 35,000 euros of doping products as detailed in the
Puerto files. The court reportedly upheld Ullrich’s complaint, saying Franke should keep his comments out of
the media as his statement lacked solid grounds.

4 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47
le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/14

But the SC Dynamo connection remains an interesting one: a promising teenager enters a sports school that
practices the systematic use of steroids in a coercive environment and that teenager goes on to achieve
impressive cycling victories whilst being noted for his impressive physique. Daniel Coyle, in Lance
Armstrong’s War, wrote that Ullrich’s legs “did not resemble cyclists’ legs so much as the sort of legs
comic-book artists gave Superman.” Furthermore, “such was their tinge of unreality that other cyclists would
stare at them before races” and Ullrich would keep them covered with his sweats until just before the start.

The answer to the question as to whether Ullrich doped in the early part of his career, as an amateur, may
well be an emphatic ‘no’. There is no evidence pointing to his use of testosterone or similar steroids, other
than his victories and his enrolment in a sports school with a tainted history. To suggest otherwise would be
clutching at straws, seeking to draw a picture of long-term doping that has yet to be suggested.

In conclusion, though, Ullrich clearly has a story to tell. With his long-career, spanning over ten very
important years in professional cycling, Ullrich must have witnessed – or perhaps even experienced – all of
the central doping trends that have swept the peloton. From his latest comments we are unlikely to hear his
story just yet. But perhaps one day we will. And there might be more than just a few revelations if the right
questions are asked.

Ullrich in happier times on the podium

2 Responses to 'Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich'

1. 1gv
April 24th, 2007 at 3:39 pm

Great article. Very insightful. I never thought about his muscle mass as indicators. He did seem to have
the biggest hamstrings in the sport.

2. 2bbattle
December 4th, 2009 at 4:17 am

Since this article was written, Riis, Zabel and Aldag of Telekom have admitted to using epo.

Leave a Response

5 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47
le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/14

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Pages:

About le grimpeur
Mont Ventoux

Categories:

Classic Climbs
Classic Stages
Climbers
Climbing Skills
Doping
Local Climbs
Posts

Archives:

June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009

6 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47
le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/14

May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007

Links

Tour de France…0
Bobke Strut…0
Giro d'Italia…0
Cycles Marinoni…0
BKW…0
Le Dauphine…0
Slow Your Roll…0
Pez Cycling News…0
La Vuelta…0
The Virtual Musette…0
Cycling Art…0
The Sporting Life…0
Tin Donkey…0
Velo Retro…0
VeloVentoux…0
Galstudio…0
West Suffolk Wheeler…0

7 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47
le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/14

Cyclocosm…0
Cycling Inquisition…0
Red Kite Prayer…0

Recommended

Read more

Come and Go…

Joe Parkin (Pa…
$14.93

New from Parkin: review

coming soon!
Tomorrow, …
Jean Bobet (P…
$19.52

Beautiful autobiography
from c…

We Were Yo…
Laurent Fignon…
$15.96

The translation we've all

been waiting for.
Olympic Gan…
Matt Rendell (…
$17.90

Another great read from

Rendell, a fasci…
The Tour Is …
Jean-Paul Ves…
$17.12

A great reference source

for the Alpe.
Fallen Angel
William Fotheri…
$36.26

Fotheringham is a great
writer and this e…
1 2 3 >

Privacy

8 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47
le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/14

Recent Posts

9 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47
le grimpeur – Doping and climbing – conclusions – Jan Ullrich http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/14

Omni Daily News

10:18 AM PDT 7-9-2010

Graphic Novel Friday:

Blackest Night:
Interview with Geoff
Johns
1:04 AM PDT 7-9-2010

Super Sensational
Satirical Selling Piece
3:41 PM PDT 7-8-2010

Omni Daily News

12:58 PM PDT 7-8-2010

L. Timmel Duchamp
and Her Excellent
Aqueduct Press
Celebrate Reaching
the 50-Book Mark
11:35 AM PDT 7-8-2010

Behind the Scenes:

Mike Allen's Hot New
Anthology Series
Clockwork Phoenix
10:02 AM PDT 7-7-2010

Old Media Monday:

Reviewing the
Reviewers
10:44 AM PDT 7-5-2010

Guest Blogger Mark

Get Widget | Privacy

Imhotep theme designed by Chris Lin. Proudly powered by Wordpress.

XHTML | CSS | RSS | Comments RSS

10 of 10 10/07/2010 23:47