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Tour de France News for June 23, 2003

Edited by Jeff Jones & Chris Henry

Pevenage confident in Ullrich

Jan is back
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Jan Ullrich's long time mentor and sports director Rudy Pevenage believes that Ullrich will be ready for the Tour de France, despite a difficult spring. The financial problems with Team Coast nearly ended up with them not riding the Tour at all, until Bianchi stepped in with a rescue package for the team. Now, with three days to go until the end of the Tour de Suisse, Ullrich is beginning to show the form that he'll need to stay on par with the favourites in the mountains of the Tour.

Ullrich has the remarkable record of never having finished lower than second in all the Tours that he has started in. But past records mean little, especially after what Ullrich has been through in the last year. His stated aim has been to try and win a stage with a view to doing well in next year's Tour, but as Pevenage told Het Laatste Nieuws yesterday, "With Jan, you never know."

"Isn't it understandable that he really doesn't want too much pressure on his shoulders? For a team like ours it's not obvious how to compete with US Postal. When we began with Coast, Jan and I thought: good, with Beltran with us we are well placed for the cols. What's left now? Angel Casero, but he's not a born helper. And further: Garmendia, Plaza. It's a little bit tight."

Certainly Bianchi is no Telekom or US Postal, although with Ullrich back at the helm and looking good, sponsorship interest should be greater for next season. Ullrich has the capability and the talent to do very well at the top level, and the second half of the season should see him back to his best. An important factor is Ullrich's weight problem, which in the years after he won the Tour in '97 saw him put too many kilos on in winter and struggle to lose them in spring in time for the next Tour. This year, that hasn't been an issue.

Suffering on stage 5
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Pevenage's response: "Because he wanted it himself. Finally. For my part I've stopped hammering him continuously about it."

As for his current form, Ullrich has been a little sick during the Tour de Suisse, and has had problems breathing. "I'm taking antibiotics and will look after myself here, but already it's going better today," said Ullrich before the start of stage 6 where he finished second, a big improvement on yesterday's 2'52 loss to Casagrande.

Ullrich's next test will be the 33 km time trial on Tuesday, then he will line up for the German National Championships next Sunday.

Demol: Heras, Hincapie in good shape

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After finishing second overall in the Volta a Catalunya, Roberto Heras (US Postal-Berry Floor) is in excellent shape, according to team director Dirk Demol. "Roberto rode a great race," said Demol. "Even though he finished second, I feel he is in better shape right now than he was when we won Catalunya last year. We simply could not stop (Jose Antonio) Pecharroman."

Pecharroman won the race by a margin of 43 seconds, after storming to victory in the Stage 6 uphill time trial, where he beat Heras by 52 seconds. "After Saturday's time trial, Roberto got in the car with me and realized he had lost the race to Pecharroman," said Demol, who together with Heras was very impressed by Pecharroman. "For the first ten minutes, the only word he could say over and over again was 'unbelievable.' He could not believe he lost over 50 seconds to him in 13 kms. Roberto rode strong, beating world (time trial) champion (Santiago) Botero and the rest, but nobody could believe Pecharroman. I have seen races like this, but mainly from riders like Lance (Armstrong). I think there is no doubt we saw a future champion (today)."

"But overall, our team rode a super race. Roberto was second, we were second in the team time trial stage and George (Hincapie) was second in the last stage and second in the points competition," added Demol. "After a full week of racing, George rode strong again today and nearly won. He is really back and in great shape."

The team will announced its final Tour de France roster later this week.

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