Former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich announced his
retirement from competitive cycling on Monday, eight months after
his career was put on hold by a doping investigation.
The 33-year-old German, who won the sport's most prestigious
race in 1997, said at a presentation in Hamburg he would work as an
adviser to the small Austrian Volksbank team.
"I will continue my involvement in cycling but I'm ending my
active career as a professional cyclist," said Ullrich, who has
strongly denied any involvement in doping.
"I couldn't live without cycling. It's my passion and my
life."
Ullrich was withdrawn from the T-Mobile team before last year's
Tour de France after being linked with the Operation Puerta doping
investigation in Spain.
He was suspended and then dropped by his team despite his
insistence he was not involved.
Since then Ullrich has been without a professional team,
although he has not been charged with a doping offence.
He also won the 1999 Tour of Spain and two medals at the 2000
Sydney Olympics, gold in the road race and silver in the time
trial.
Ullrich was 23 when he won the 1997 Tour and many predicted he
would go on to dominate the sport in the manner of five-times
champion Miguel Indurain, whose reign had ended the previous
year.
Ullrich was unfortunate to spend most of his career trying to
catch seven-times winner Lance Armstrong. The German finished
second to the American in 2000, 2001 and 2003 and claimed third
place in 2005.
(China Daily via Agencies February 27, 2007)