Jan Ullrich has reported that he is no longer suffering from burnout, according to Sporza. The German complained of suffering from the condition in August after years of scrutiny over his involvement with Eufemiano Fuentes, which was uncovered during Operación Puerto.
Before Christmas he left a personal message to fans on his website proclaiming that he was largely recovered, and now he seems to have taken one step further.
“I am cured of my burnout and will become a father for the third time soon,” said the 1997 Tour de France winner according to Sporza.
“After four months of extreme weakness I feel back on top form today, I even train for four hours with my good friend Andreas Klöden, although I’ve not been on the bike for a long time so I was crawling.”
Besides the speculation over his involvement in Puerto, which was confirmed by DNA matching to some of the blood bags seized, Ullrich had been under extreme pressure for most of his career. After winning the Tour in 1997 at the age of just 23 years he was expected to dominate the race for the next decade; a bad day in the rain to les Deux Alpes saw him lose the 1998 race to Marco Pantani though and, while he sat out the 1999 race with what was a recurring knee injury, Lance Armstrong was taking his stranglehold on the race that was to last for seven years.
During the Armstrong era Ullrich was to become the principle target of the American’s famous mind games, with Armstrong constantly saying that Ullrich was the stronger rider.
Although Ullrich, at 37 years of age, is two years the junior of Armstrong, the idea of making his own comeback is very far from his thoughts.
“I have no plans in that direction,” he said, “I intend to focus completely on the birth of my child.”