Tuesday, March 14, 2006
The Once and Future Kaiser?
When, according to the T-Mobile press announcement yesterday, Jan Ullrich – finally – turns pedals in anger at the Tour de Sarthe in early April, he’ll begin the new season as the consensus if not undisputed heir to Armstrong’s throne. His position is a bit tenuous at the top of the heap: it can reasonably be argued that while he may be the strongest rider when in form, his best performances – like his one Tour victory – are far in the past.
Curiously, at the T-Mobile team presentation, Jan tried to make the case that this year would be a new beginning of sorts, hinting that the departures of both team manager Walter Goodefroot and sprinter Erik Zabel had improved the mojo aboard the T-Mobile team bus. While it should have been somewhat apparent to even casual observers of the team that thee was a decided funk in the air, suggesting that the source was either of the two aforementioned suspects is, well, suspicious.
Goodefroot of course was at the center of a stormy dispute with his former deputy at the helm, Rudy Pevenage, who quit the then Telekom squad to join Jan in his ill-considered Team Coast adventure as a quasi-trainer, quasi-mentor, quasi-Svengali. Oddly, he seemed to displace Peter Becker, Jan’s coach from his junior days in Rostock, who in a similar position on the fringes of having a semi-official position had been a source of concern for both Goodefroot and Pevenage as they tried to manage team affairs in the halcyon days of 1996-97.
After the split, Pevenage constantly criticized Goodefroot’s managerial moves, despite the T-Mobile chief’s record in turning the squad from canon fodder to one of the best-oiled machines in the peloton. Not only were the Magenta Boys (don’t call their jerseys pink!) tops in the Tour, but Goodefroot – a formidable Classics man in his day – recast the squad in his own image making them a force to be reckoned with in the Spring as well. While it is easy to understand why Pevenage sought to tie his horse to the Ullrich cart, it seems puzzling why Jan would similarly choose Pevenage over Goodefroot…
Similarly, calling out Zabel for the obvious discord in last year’s Tour is disingenuous at best. The whole affair began at last season’s team presentation when Klöden – seeking to bolster his own ill-founded claims at Tour glory – sought to exclude Zabel from the Tour line-up by publicly calling for it. (Given Klöden’s remarkable inconsistency over the years, it probably was best to look for more crutches.) You may recall this is also the same Klöden who single handedly pulled back the Vinokourov attack early in the race. Certainly wouldn’t want a possible GC threat to ride away from Lance and the Discovery team. I mean, that might actually make them work…
Now Goodefroot and Zabel are gone. Also departed is Rolf Aldag, who with a lot of class turned down contract offers from multiple teams (and for more money than he had ever earned as a cyclist before) to take a PR job with T-Mobile. Aldag was the one doing much of yeoman work at T-Mobile, and – along with Zabel – often leading the squad over the initial climbs of the big days in the mountains. Klöden and Pevenage, though still remain by his side…
All of which suggests something most of us have known for a long time – Jan’s a bit messed up in the head. After winning his first Tour in 1997, Phil Ligget was comparing his to Eddy Merckx and suggesting that Jan would be the first rider to win seven Tours. Instead, the intervening years have been a nice cocktail of a lack of commitment to training, repeated bad judgment both on and off the bike, and a seeming inability to focus on the necessary tasks to build a successful season. In stark contrast, Lance Armstrong came to embody the type of commitment that makes champions. Although his race scheduled was dramatically pared, he trained as though he were racing. His focus was singular, but also all-consuming. He willed himself to win, and that willingness saw him accomplish the Herculean task that many saw possible in Ullrich.
If Jan emerges on top of the podium in late July, he may salvage his reputation as perhaps the greatest talent to be eclipsed by Lance’s remarkable career. But it is more likely he will cement his standing as perhaps the greatest talent undermined by his own inability to screw his head on straight.
Curiously, at the T-Mobile team presentation, Jan tried to make the case that this year would be a new beginning of sorts, hinting that the departures of both team manager Walter Goodefroot and sprinter Erik Zabel had improved the mojo aboard the T-Mobile team bus. While it should have been somewhat apparent to even casual observers of the team that thee was a decided funk in the air, suggesting that the source was either of the two aforementioned suspects is, well, suspicious.
Goodefroot of course was at the center of a stormy dispute with his former deputy at the helm, Rudy Pevenage, who quit the then Telekom squad to join Jan in his ill-considered Team Coast adventure as a quasi-trainer, quasi-mentor, quasi-Svengali. Oddly, he seemed to displace Peter Becker, Jan’s coach from his junior days in Rostock, who in a similar position on the fringes of having a semi-official position had been a source of concern for both Goodefroot and Pevenage as they tried to manage team affairs in the halcyon days of 1996-97.
After the split, Pevenage constantly criticized Goodefroot’s managerial moves, despite the T-Mobile chief’s record in turning the squad from canon fodder to one of the best-oiled machines in the peloton. Not only were the Magenta Boys (don’t call their jerseys pink!) tops in the Tour, but Goodefroot – a formidable Classics man in his day – recast the squad in his own image making them a force to be reckoned with in the Spring as well. While it is easy to understand why Pevenage sought to tie his horse to the Ullrich cart, it seems puzzling why Jan would similarly choose Pevenage over Goodefroot…
Similarly, calling out Zabel for the obvious discord in last year’s Tour is disingenuous at best. The whole affair began at last season’s team presentation when Klöden – seeking to bolster his own ill-founded claims at Tour glory – sought to exclude Zabel from the Tour line-up by publicly calling for it. (Given Klöden’s remarkable inconsistency over the years, it probably was best to look for more crutches.) You may recall this is also the same Klöden who single handedly pulled back the Vinokourov attack early in the race. Certainly wouldn’t want a possible GC threat to ride away from Lance and the Discovery team. I mean, that might actually make them work…
Now Goodefroot and Zabel are gone. Also departed is Rolf Aldag, who with a lot of class turned down contract offers from multiple teams (and for more money than he had ever earned as a cyclist before) to take a PR job with T-Mobile. Aldag was the one doing much of yeoman work at T-Mobile, and – along with Zabel – often leading the squad over the initial climbs of the big days in the mountains. Klöden and Pevenage, though still remain by his side…
All of which suggests something most of us have known for a long time – Jan’s a bit messed up in the head. After winning his first Tour in 1997, Phil Ligget was comparing his to Eddy Merckx and suggesting that Jan would be the first rider to win seven Tours. Instead, the intervening years have been a nice cocktail of a lack of commitment to training, repeated bad judgment both on and off the bike, and a seeming inability to focus on the necessary tasks to build a successful season. In stark contrast, Lance Armstrong came to embody the type of commitment that makes champions. Although his race scheduled was dramatically pared, he trained as though he were racing. His focus was singular, but also all-consuming. He willed himself to win, and that willingness saw him accomplish the Herculean task that many saw possible in Ullrich.
If Jan emerges on top of the podium in late July, he may salvage his reputation as perhaps the greatest talent to be eclipsed by Lance’s remarkable career. But it is more likely he will cement his standing as perhaps the greatest talent undermined by his own inability to screw his head on straight.
