[OT] Jan Ullrich retires from professional cycling

[RogerRamjet]

Don't know how many people are interested in Cycling, but it's a sad day for me indeed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/6396899.stm

Jan was my favourite rider, possibly the most talented in recent years, but his hardcore training regime of parties, beer and Wiener schnitzel just didn't work out for him :p

I would have wrote this in the German section but my translation wouldn't be that impressive. I was just wondering if people had opinions on him? He was the first German to win the Tour De France, aswell as Tours of Spain and Switzerland, and ofcourse the olympic Gold in 2000.

An impressive athlete, I only wish Britain had someone as talented as him!

http://myspace-204.vo.llnwd.net/00278/40/21/278571204_l.jpg

[silent000]

Im not much into cycling but one of ma best mates is and he was quite annoyed by this news :P

And that dude has the best name evar!

[Powerpunsh]

An impressive athlete, I only wish Britain had someone as talented as him!

you could be one roger, the magical substance is sauerkraut. :D

[elGringo]

he was sacked from his team and the pro-tournament due to

DOPING ACCUSATIONS

and since he refused to wash his hands clean of these - which he could have easily done (if they were unfounded ofc) he retired because of ...guess...

DOPING - although he prly described the circumstances as "due to personal matters"

...bastid :D

[Zefrian]

you could be one roger, the magical substance is sauerkraut. :Dplease do not boost prejudices ;)

and by the way ... in my oppinion there's something strange going on concerning the doping accusations ... wasn't there several trials to constrict an analysis of some samples, which could lift or amplify the accusations? Why?

[H00ver]

Dope = cheat Oo

btw... this news is old :p

[RogerRamjet]

He got caught up in a doping scandal which has been dropped due to complete lack of evidence on Ullrich. He refused to give a blood sample at first, but recently gave one, and no charges have since been brought against him. Now, if he wasn't innocent he would have continued to simply refuse to give the sample and race anyway, but he has given it and retired, so kudos to the man for facing the accusations against him.

Operation Puerto as it's called was a shambles anyway, evidence going missing etc etc.

As you've said, they were only accusations too. Not like Floyd Landis for instance, who had huge amount of synthetic testosterone in his blood stream.

Jan training hard:-
http://photos-790.ak.facebook.com/ip007/v16/57/55/1012453/n1012453_30095790_2714.jpg

[RusSki]

Miguel Indurain > Jan Ullrich. Fact!

That boy could pedal a bike!

[RogerRamjet]

Miguel Indurain > Jan Ullrich. Fact!

That boy could pedal a bike!

he could like! If you read up on him though, he literally had a super human physical attributes, or as they're more commonloy known, "Roger Ramjet syndrome" ;)

[Dribble Joy]

Quite a few athletes are very good because of a genetic difference (not exactly a mutation as such). For instance there's one cross-country skier who can just go on and on, due to the fact he has a red blood cell count way way above normal. It runs in his family too, his relations are nearly all long distance performers.

[RogerRamjet]

At the top of his career, Miguel Indurain had a physique that was not only superior to average people, but also compared to his fellow athletes. His blood circulation had the ability to circulate 7 litres of oxygen around his body per minute[1], compared to the average amount of 3-4 litres of an ordinary person and the 5-6 litres of his fellow riders. Also, Indurain's lung capacity was 8 litres, compared to an average of 5 litres. In addition, Indurain's resting pulse was as low as 29 BPM, compared to a normal human's 60-80 bpm , which meant his heart would be less strained in the tough mountain stages[2]. His VO2 max was 88 ml/kg/min; in comparison, Lance Armstrong's was 82 ml/kg/min.

Those are Indurains superhuman attributes, Lance Armstrong isn't far behind him, and when you think that Ullrich was just a mere ordinary human being compared to these two, and had maybe only a fraction of the preperation for the races as Indurain and Armstrong, he was bloody damn good.

For a big guy too, riding massive gear ratios compared to other riders he managed to keep the pace with Marco Pantani, possibly the greatest climber the tour as seen, aswell as a few other good climbers in the mountains.

Video here:-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n5GpUOENME

And he hardly gets out of his seat.

[RusSki]

hehe the hill climbs, television really doesnt do justice to how steep they are.

[Xeno LARD]

whats your msn luke?

email me@ nc@xenocide.info