#ullriis

Bro, are you trying to fuck me up on this beautiful Sunday? In a good way? Cause I've been BURSTING AT THE FUCKING SEAMS!!!!

Ullrichstrong (they are literal🤌 soulmates)

Ullriis (I will NEVER be normal about those two🤌 the daddy issues, the fucking daddy issues)

Janmarco (I won't be normal about those two either🤌 the guilt, fuck me, the guilt🤌)

Janerik (stop those two I can't fucking handle them😭 Idk what they were on, but I am onto SOMETHING🤌)

Anquetil x Poulidor, Darrigade and Altig in that order

I'm just gonna do this one for the fun of it😊

Bjarne joined Telekom in late 1995 and notably announced that he would win the TdF the following year.

1) Nobody on the team believed he would actually be able to pull that off. Not even Jan. But he did mention in his auto-biography how Bjarne really impressed him (the word he used was 'imponieren'... multiple times.)

2) Godefroot did not include Jan in his sales pitch to Bjarne, as Jan just came off a very mediocre first season as a pro.

3) Telekom was basically on verge of fucking quitting their cycling team as Jan revealed in his new documentary 'Jan Ullrich - der Gejagte', and Bjarne basically rebuild the whole team from the ground up.

During 1996 they rode the Midi Libre together, during which pretty much everyone had something to bitch about Bjarne, but not Jan.

Aldag goes on to paint a picture of Bjarne, using his teammates like sled dogs, verbally whipping them into a seemingly gratuitous 90-km pursuit on a stage in which a breakaway group had cut loose and Telekom had nothing to gain from hunting them down.

During the Tour de Suisse 1996 Jan was supposed to be just Bjarne's domestique. However Bjarne wasn't feeling too well and grew weaker with each day, developing a pretty foul mood. And even though Jan could have gone faster he instead stayed by Bjarne's side, trying to cheer him up.

Bjarne abandoned the race after stage 6, meanwhile Rudy Pevenage, who had noticed Jan's form, approached Bjarne asking: "Did you see how good Jan is? He could give you great support on the tour."

But Bjarne was way too angry to even get into that and replied, "Just do what you want," before leaving for home.

That would kick off an internal struggle between Rudy Pevenage and Walter Godefroot, about whether or not they should take Jan to the Tour de France, that was only finally put to rest after Jan came in second in the German National Championship (in which he pretty much gifted Christian Henn the first place).

So Jan was finally placed on the team for the Tour de France 1996 and by his own admission he was the only one not in one of the 'gangs'.

The team was divided into Erik's group and Bjarne's group, and Jan was basically just told to go as fast as he could.

From the very beginning Jan pretty much clung to Bjarne for comfort and guidance. Like during stage 7 which included two scary Alpine passes and a murderous ascend to the finish Jan was understandably scared, and Bjarne managed to calm him by telling him, "You are just gonna stay by my side as long as you can."

And that's what Jan did. In the end the media would say Bjarne had been, "brilliantly assisted by the second youngest rider in the race".

During that Tour you could also watch something that would define Jan and Bjarne's relationship for the years to come.

Jens Heppner: "If Riis millimetric nitpicking over gear ratios and saddle height could drive his team mechanics to distraction, Ullrich typically issues one instruction: 'I'll have the same as Bjarne.'"

Bjarne also confirmed: "At first he was quite curious, then I think he sort of learned, 'Ach, Bjarne knows everything, Bjarne's thinking of everything, so I don't have to'. It was easy for him but also not the best thing because as a leader and as a young guy you need to learn what you want in your life. It's part of growing as an athlete."

Jan was such a great help to Bjarne that by stage 8 he had gained his trust, to the point that Bjarne would discuss the strategy of the stage to come with Jan on the day before the stage, and then with the rest of the team on the day of the stage.

For example, when Jan met up with Gaby before stage 9 he already knew Bjarne was gonna try and get the yellow jersey that day.

Or when Bjarne used Jan to set the pace during stage 16 while easily riding next to the lead group and pondering when to execute the killing blow.

Bjarne even reveals in 'Der Gejagte': "How nice could that be? To have a strong guy like him next to me. And I remember sometimes, you know, just, 'Go, Jan. Just ride as hard as you can and I will finish it off.'"

Jan throughout the whole duration of the Tour in '96 never wavered in his loyalty to Bjarne.

Not when he was briefly maillot jaune virtuel during stage 10, not when he became second overall after his amazing ride during stage 17, not after winning the last ITT on stage 20.

It all raised the question of how much more road Jan would have needed to close the gap to Bjarne.

Between the two of them there doesn't really seem to have been any thought of Jan possibly contesting the GC. After the last ITT the two of them hugged as the pressure of the last weeks had finally been taken off their shoulders. And Jan seemed almost embarrassed to the press, telling them that he didn't want the yellow jersey and that he didn't even thought about it.

After the Tour finished the team went out for something to eat where Bjarne went on to thank each member of the team individually, while also apologizing for pushing them so hard.

Jan he told: "Jan, you were my best helper. I thank you for that. What you gave me I will give back to you someday."

The Tour de France 1997 had them both working together again, and the team started out in the same team constellation: Bjarne as team captain and Jan as his domestique.

Even though Bjarne betrayed some anxiety at his pre-race press conference in Rouen, admitting he didn't know how Jan felt 'deep down' about the established order in the team.

Jan for his part continued to profess his loyalty, much to some teammates bemusement. After Jan's second place during the prologue time trial Jens Heppner whispered to Udo Bölts that Riis would have no chance if Jan was ever set free.

In fact, the whole team stood united behind Jan, which became clear as early on as stage 1.

During the first Pyrenean stage (9) Bjarne couldn't life with the pace set by Virenque, and Jan immediately fastened himself to Virenque's rear wheel in the hope that Bjarne would recover; which he couldn't and didn't.

Pretty much everyone knew at this point the man with the best chance to get his grabby lil raccoon hands on the yellow jersey on Telekom was Jan.

I mean, look at those gifs, and tell me Bjarne, despite being thankful for what Jan did during this stage, didn't know perfectly well that it was Jan's time now.

(Jan also revealed in the Kroos podcast how Bjarne noticed on the first mountain stages: "Jan is loyal, he is waiting for me but he could also go faster too.")

That night Walter Godefroot assured the press the Telekom hierarchy and strategy hadn't changed, meanwhile telling the riders something different. Jan would no longer have to sacrifice himself for Bjarne.

And we all know what happened on stage 10, on the road to Andorra.

After Godefroot told Jan to go, after Bjarne finally told Jan, "Listen, today, if you can, give everything that you've got," Jan went ahead and stormed Andorra.

Jan also revealed in the Kroos podcast how Bjarne had found him after the stage and hugged him with the biggest smile, happy that had Jan managed to pull this off.

He also acknowledged that his and Bjarne's relationship wasn't quite normal. That there are way more team captains that will call back a domestique that's doing better, not wanting to give up the leader position.

But Bjarne was so thankful for what Jan did for him in 1996, and how loyal Jan stayed to him up until Bjarne gave him the go-ahead in Andorra that he allowed for this changing of the guard.

Actually Bjarne is quoted saying how fair Jan was toward him and that he in turn needs to be fair to him.

During stage 14 for example, where Jan misjudged a corner during the descend, Bjarne jumped in to help Jan get back to the leaders, riding for him the way Jan had done for him just a year ago.

Bjarne overall endured a miserable Tour (as he was suffering the flu) but still made good of his promise to repay the favours of the previous year. In fact, he was one of the first to embrace Jan when he crossed the finish line in Paris.

During the 1998 Tour de France you would see just how much Jan relied on Bjarne as his teammate.

Pantani was able to best Jan during stage 15 because of many reasons, one of them because of what Bjarne had told Jan on the morning of the stage: "The Galibier was too far from the finish, so we shouldn't try to cover any attacks there: he or Udo Bölts would do it if necessary," Pevenage explains. "So we get halfway up the Galibier, Pantani attacks, and Jan doesn't follow. Why? because Bjarne said in the morning he shouldn't panic."

However when Marco started his attack Bölts and Riis had already been dropped.

The two of them would spend the remainder of the stage flanking Jan as the trio made their way up the mountain.

(start at timestamp 1:20:00 and watch Jan come up to the finish with Udo and Bjarne)

Look at how Bjarne has his arm around Jan's shoulder after they finally made it over the finish line, and contrast that to how Bjarne basically was such a dick to the rest of the team NOBODY on Telekom has something good to say about him BUT Jan.

You can also see how Jan relied on Bjarne's guidance during both strikes of the peloton.

Now let's talk about the probably most damning piece of Ullriis evidence.

The fact that Jan watched Lance's 'comeback of a century' during the TdF 1999 from afar, as he spend holidays with Tobias Steinhauser and stayed a few days with Bjarne in Tuscany.

At that time Jan was seriously considering retiring from bike racing as the whole pressure of his fame was getting to him, according to Christian Henn making him unable to clear his head, and after an injury during the Deutschland Tour left him with an injured meniscus and unable to ride the Tour.

Riis said during their time spend together that Jan was crazy for considering retirement, and despite Jan having inched toward that conclusion as well it was only after his time spend in Tuscany that he informed Walter Godefroot that he intended to ride on, during a meeting in Brussels in August.

Bjarne finished his active career after 1999 and went on to become a manager for some cycling teams like the danish cycling team home-Jack&Jones.

Meanwhile Jan would stay with Telekom until he got kicked from the team in 2002 after a positive doping test.

Afterwards he would end up in talks with Bjarne about possibly joining his Coast team. For a time Pantani was even in talks to join too.

However their negotiations ultimately didn't come to fruition.

Riis: "I said, 'Jan, I'm going to take you if you want, but it's going to be on my terms.' Because I knew that's what he needed - to change his environment. That was my demand, but in the end he couldn't agree to it. The weight was only part of the problem. If you put the whole focus on that, you make it a bigger problem than it is. I was going to change the whole foundation of what he was doing, how he was thinking. But he wasn't able to do that. He knew I could help him, he knew he maybe needed me, but to do it a hundred per cent? He didn't want to take that step."

They would also meet in 2003 when the Tour de France celebrated its 100 anniversary.

In Jan's new Amazon Prime documentary 'Jan Ullrich - Der Gejagte' Bjarne was also interviewed.

For one, that says something because he wasn't included in the ARD organized documentary 'Being Jan Ullrich', which might be because of misgivings about Bjarne's doping past, but then again Udo Bölts and Rolf Aldag were also interviewed.

Jan himself revealed how some of the guys interviewed for his project he asked before ARD asked about theirs.

Either ARD didn't want to talk to Bjarne, or they couldn't because Bjarne had already agreed to be on Jan's docu.

Whatever the case Bjarne said: "We know what I did, we know what Jan did in the 90s. So, if you take that time, you know, did we do whatever it takes to win? I don't think so but we went far. And we, I believe... I can speak for myself but I also think Jan can say the same thing. We did what was necessary at that time. Does that mean we do whatever we wanna do to win? And put everything else on the side? No. Our health, our family? No, we didn't think like that. But we knew we were in a period of time that... you did certain things and that (doping) was a part of it."

Bjarne also acknowledges: "I never saw Jan as a leader. As a leader who stands up for his team and, you know, takes control, takes leadership. Jan wasn't that."

Bjarne always knew about this predisposition of Jan's. He knew Jan needed help because they were so very different; and he decided to help Jan, be there for him, maybe take the pressure off a little.

Like Jan said in the Kroos podcast, his and Bjarne's relationship was something special.

It's not as normal for the team leader to let his domestique go because he notices he's doing better. But Bjarne was so amazed with how Jan rode for him in '96, how loyal he was until Arcalis 1997, until he gave him the literal 'go-ahead' that he decided to be Jan's defacto co-captain.

You have news outlets referring to Jan and Bjarne as a duality like General and Lieutenant, King and Crown Prince.

You have Bjarne tell Daniel Friebe in 2020 that he would like to retain one thing: that he and Jan Ullrich could not have realized their dreams without each other.

It's clear as day that Bjarne played a very special role in Jan's career as a cyclist during the 90s.

And I can't help but agree.

Because domestique and even super-domestique ("Edelhelfer") doesn't seem to quite cut it for what Jan did in 1996.

For crying out loud, Bjarne trusted Jan so much he would discuss the strategy for the following stage with Jan the evening before, and tell the rest of the team only on the day of the stage.

Jan was instrumental for getting Bjarne into yellow and keeping him in yellow in 1996.

Like Bjarne said in 2020: They could not have realized their dreams without the other.