It's a shame that Ullrich and others feel they must cheat in order to be successful. Hopefully his role as advisor will not include how to cheat on drug tests. Well, Ullrich has never actually been caught doing anything wrong, and I am a big fan of his, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. As BikeNut says, I think it's pretty damn sad that his career has ended this way. Forced out by speculation and innuendo. The whole Operacion Puerto saga has been a complete farce since the beginning, and now looks like fizzling out completely without a single thing being done combat to doping. Careers have been ruined. As for Ullrich, he was a great bike riders and I disagree with the people who say he wasted his talent. In the Tour, he was just unlucky to ride during the Armstrong era, but he still has a great palmars. A Tour, a Vuelta, an Olympic gold, two World titles and numerous other wins... not a bad haul at all.
I agree that Jan was unlucky to peak at the same time Lance did. Having been beaten so many times by Lance, I think Jan simply resigned himself to being forever second on the podium. This may have led him to train and stay fit a bit less during the offseason. Perhaps because he was always second, Jan came across as a bit less robotic than Lance to me. Maybe Jan didn't train hard enough, have the same level of coaches and the "methods" they brought (see Michele Ferrari) as USPS/Disco did or maybe he just wasn't as good. Pro cycling is hurting in a bad way. It appears as if the Puerto investigation will be swept under the rug just as the Festina scandal was in the 90's. Now the major UCI/Pro Tour rift is adding to the chaos. Hopefully out of all of this will come a new generation of riders who rely a little less on doping and can bring some integrity back to the sport. Regardless, I remain a fan and anxiously await this weekend's Het Volk race and the rest of the spring classics.
Put me in the "Jan underachieved" camp, though it's possible that he was simply very good and not great.
