“Couldn’t stand it”
Lance Armstrong was afraid that Jan Ullrich might die
November 22, 2023, 12:21 p.m
At the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich have shaped the image of cycling for years. After the doping revelations, both fell into deep crises. Things go all the way down for the German. He’s flirting with death. Americans also know this. When he meets him in 2018, it breaks his heart.
Former cycling star Lance Armstrong spoke emotionally about the serious life crisis of his former rival Jan Ullrich. “Pantani was already dead back then. I couldn’t bear to lose another one of us,” said the American in an interview with “Zeitmagazin”.
The Italian climbing specialist Marco Pantani died of a cocaine overdose in 2004 – Ullrich struggled with drug and alcohol abuse years later. In 2018, during a bad phase of his crisis, he received support from Armstrong, among others, who visited him in a clinic, and then fought his way back to life. “I didn’t know what to expect,” said Armstrong, looking back: “But I love this man. The fact that he was doing so badly broke my heart.”
During their active time, a phase in cycling history that was overshadowed by the doping abuse of a large number of athletes, the two opponents dominated the sporting events. Ullrich from Rostock won the Tour de France in 1997 and won Olympic gold in the road race in 2000, while Armstrong from Texan triumphed seven times in the Tour of France, among other things. Both were subsequently convicted of doping.
Armstrong justifies doping
“We were both icons in our countries – me because I had overcome my cancer and inspired many people; Jan as the first German Tour winner,” said Armstrong, who was stripped of all Tour titles after his career. “Even if it sounds immodest: We were the greatest in cycling, worldwide. And we were part of this shitty generation.”
With regard to doping, he wished that “neither I nor Jan nor anyone from our generation would have had to make this decision,” said Armstrong: “Unfortunately the reality was different.”
The now 52-year-old had to struggle heavily in the past with the doping revelations that brought down Armstrong’s career in the 2010s. “It took me ten damn years to fight my way out of this hole,” he said. “My life imploded. Not only did I lose millions of dollars, I lost almost everything that had defined me.” In the meantime, Armstrong emphasized, he was “100 percent” in harmony with his life.