Jan Ullrich: “Was on the same path as Pantani – almost dead”

“Three years ago I was feeling really bad,” said Germany’s former cycling hero in the podcast of his former long-term rival Lance Armstrong. “You visited me and I was on the same path as Marco Pantani – almost dead.” The Italian cycling star Pantani died of a cocaine overdose in 2004, the exact circumstances of his death have not yet been clarified.

On the holiday island of Mallorca, Ullrich, Armstrong and his former teammate George Hincapie and team boss Johan Bruyneel were sitting on a white sofa and chatting about old times on a terrace by the water in a good mood. Ullrich in particular noticed that he was doing better after his past alcohol and drug escapades. “I slept for three years and needed the time for myself. But now my brain is clear again, my body is fit,” said Germany’s only winner of the Tour de France.

He has good friends around him, only drinks water, and his girlfriend cooks healthy food. “Good friends brought me back to life and I’m happy again,” said the 47-year-old. <a data-caption="Jan Ullrich gewann 1997 die Tour de France: Links neben ihm steht Richard Virenque, rechts der verstorbene Italiener Marco Pantani. © APA" data-fancybox="inline-84536" target="_image" href="https://s3-images.sportnews.bz/_images/scale/1280x1280/img/2021/09/jan-ullrich-gewann-1997-die-tour-de-france-links-neben-ihm-steht-richard-virenque-rechts-der-verstorbene-italiener-marco-pantani.jpg"> Jan Ullrich won the Tour de France in 1997: to his left is Richard Virenque, to his right is the late Italian Marco Pantani. © APA

Armstrong and Ullrich had legendary duels at the Tour de France in the early 2000s, from which Armstrong always emerged as the winner. Armstrong was later stripped of all seven Tour victories due to doping and not awarded again, Ullrich is still in the results lists. However, Ullrich was taken out of the race in 2006 shortly before the start of the tour because he, along with other top stars, had been exposed as a customer of the Spanish doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Then the crash followed.

In the fall of 2018, Ullrich admitted drug problems in a statement and said he was undergoing treatment. A few weeks earlier, Ullrich had been temporarily taken into custody after an argument in Mallorca with his neighbor at the time, the actor and director Til Schweiger.

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Jan Ullrich: “Was on the same path as Pantani – almost dead”

Jan Ullrich, in a great mood and probably in the best health he has been in years, spoke more openly than ever about the darkest time of his life.

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