Ullrich looks to the time trial

Jan Ullrich is showing signs of improvement towards Tour form in the Giro d'Italia, although after losing 16 minutes in Sunday's mountain stage, it's clear that he's not going to go into the red too many times during this race. But he has already declared himself satisfied with the way things are going so far, with a solid performance in the team time trial last week, and a fair showing in Saturday's first really hilly stage. "It's going with me as expected, after many training kilometres," Ullrich said. "I have built a base, the proof of which I got in the team time trial. In the mountains, I'm still a bit short. There's still a bit of work to be done there."

The next target for Der Jan is the 50 km time trial on Thursday. "It's flat and long and is therefore something for Jan," said T-Mobile's team director Rudy Pevenage to sportwereld.be. "Of course we have ambitions."