Title: Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was
Author: Daniel Friebe
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Year: 2022
Pages: 464
Order: HERE
What it is: A proper biography, and a quest to really rediscover the enigmatic former Tour de France winner, Jan Ullrich
Strengths: Colorfully written portrait of the rider through the eyes of the people who know him best, at least from the cycling world.
Weaknesses: Not all quests end in a satisfying manner.
Since the dawn of the Podium Cafe (18 years and counting, yo!), cycling bookshelves have been filling up with fall-from-grace stories. Some of them are just that — see the Lance Armstrong Room at the Texas State Library and Archives. Some are motivated by pleas for redemption on the author’s part, with varying degrees of sincerity ranging from “deal with it”-levels of denial to guys trying to move on with their lives. And then there are a select handful that are… just something else. Stories lined with immutable strains of yearning that stir our souls in ways that overcome the drabness of another doping epic. Quite a few Italian fans will enthusiastically go right to this place when discussing Marco Pantani. A few American followers can’t help themselves when thinking of Floyd Landis’ epic stage attack at the 2006 Tour de France. Stories like this enter into the gray areas of cycling fandom, greatness, and ethics.
Like the Jan UIlrich story. Famously a product of the East German sports system, just as the country and its systematic sports doping were crumbling to the ground, Ullrich emerged from behind the Iron Curtain to become that most cautionary of tales, a super-talented athlete who rocketed to a superstardom for which he was uniquely — historically? — unprepared. Before long, he began to pay a steep price for this, and like a beautiful mirage spotted in a scorching hot desert, he just disappeared before we knew what happened.
It’s remarkable that only very recently, with the publishing of Daniel Friebe’s Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was, could we even read and English language telling of this story. Friebe’s book was issued almost a year ago by Pan Macmillan Press, to significant acclaim, getting 4.5 stars on Amazon and its share of glowing reviews around the sport. There are at least four prior books published in German: a pair of forgettable items dropped back in 2003, plus Der Fall Jan Ullrich from 2007. Almost…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Podium Cafe – All Posts…