Now, Daniel Friebe - who has covered twenty-one editions of the Tour de France - has gone in search of the man who was said in 1997 would go on to dominate his sport for a generation, but never quite managed it. From the outset Friebe makes clear he’s not out to condemn or to judge Ullrich, his search more for the truth and maybe even some reconciliation, to understand why in Germany today Ullrich is still viewed with some sympathy or else pity, or how so many promising things went so horribly wrong.

Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was - Goodreads

Ullrich admitted that he had lost sight of what helped him feel good, with only a better lifestyle, a new relationship and regular cycling helping him move on from his addiction problems.

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You drastically changed my life. You challenged me as a man,” Armstrong said in the podcast, recognising the importance of their former rivalry and now of their friendship. From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: But realistically neither Ullrich or Pantani ( another rider who followed a similar fall from grace as Ullrich, ending in graver circumstances) could compete with the Armstrong phenomena whom, either on the bike or off of it, was always going to be the preferred cash cow of the TDF. Who could blame the organisers with the financial clout and resources of the USA and his celebrity status after surviving cancer.

Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was by Daniel Friebe Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was by Daniel Friebe

Given this period of cycling history it naturally plays out against Ullrich’s complete and utter denial of having anything whatsoever to do with doping, nor did his Team Telekom, later T-Mobile, other than giving that sense the only crime in doping was getting caught. A fortnight out from the start of the 2022 Tour de France in Copenhagen, Friebe’s substantial-sized work is neatly timed — also coming as it does now 25 years after Ullrich became the first and last German to win the Tour, his victory margin in 1997 of nine minutes and nine seconds not surpassed since. Nor indeed was Ullrich’s own career high. I watch all the cycling races," he tells me. "My favourite riders are Peter Sagan, Alejandro Valverde, Julian Alaphilippe and Tadej Pogacar. But above them all there is Miguel Indurain. He is my hero”.

It is not easy as a journalist to talk about a character like Ullrich without it being understood as an apology for his past. Having compassion towards him does not free him from his sins as a cyclist, but a hand is extended to him so that he can return to life as a person. That’s a path that he has begun to rebuild with his family, whom he had abandoned for years, to continue with cycling and, as I understand, to finish with an improved public opinion. It is in Mallorca where Ullrich found redemption from his past life. He was saved, filled with calm and returned to the quiet corner. This is a gripping account of how unbearable expectation, mental and physical fragility, the effects of a complicated childhood, a morally corrupt sport and one individual - Lance Armstrong - can conspire to reroute destiny. His breakout performance in the 1997 Tour came on Stage 10, the 252km ride including five mountain peaks to the Arcalis ski resort in Andorra. Ullrich dropped all other rivals and won by more than a minute from Richard Virenque, his soon-to-be Festina notoriety, and with that became the first German to wear the maillot jaune since Klaus-Peter Thaler in the 1978. Daniel Friebe, as a host of the Cycling Podcast, is one of the most interesting spoken-word commentators on cycling and this lives up to that. Comparisons are with some of the best cycle sport books:

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This is a gripping account of how unbearable expectation, mental and physical fragility, the effects of a complicated childhood, a morally corrupt sport and one individual – Lance Armstrong – can conspire to reroute destiny. Daniel Friebe takes us from the legacy of East Germany’s drugs programme to the pinnacle of pro cycling and asks: what price can you give sporting immortality? Friebe’s own ghost-written Cavendish autobiographies. There the achievement was to give an authentic voice - sometimes it really sounded like a Cav interview recounting a sprint finish. Here it’s more complex: a revealing and sympathetic portrait of a man who does not articulate well, and did not speak to the author at all.Tyler Hamilton’s drugs confession: the Fuentes passage has all the drama of the tell-all autobiographies, and familiar grappling with moral complexities.