Bonn, Oct 07: Jan Ullrich, Germany's sole winner of the Tour de France, has rejoined Team Telekom.
Jan Ullrich, Germany's sole winner of the Tour de France, said on Monday (October 6) the Team Telekom squad he has rejoined is "the strongest team in the world".
Ullrich, who won the Tour in 1997 and has been runner-up five times, announced on Sunday (October 5) that he would be returning to the Telekom fold after crowning a comeback from a drugs ban and serious injury by pushing Lance Armstrong to his narrowest Tour victory in July. The 29-year-old said the revamped Team Telekom -- which includes the third-placed rider in the 2003 Tour, Alexander Vinokourov and world number one Erik Zabel -- would be looking to turn up the heat on five-times Tour champion Armstrong and his US Postal team next year. Explaining wby he returned to the team, Ullrich told a news conference in Bonn on Monday: "What was decisive for me was that I've been second in the tour often enough and next year I really want to challenge seriously again and I need a team that's strong enough for that, that can drive me to it. "And I think I have found the best solution for that, the team suits me, I know the team and the majority of cyclists and that has made me stronger. I don't think I should play with my future. I think rather I can definitely mount a serious challenge for the next three years, that the big success of winning the tour really is possible, said Ullrich.


Ullrich said Telekom offered the ideal platform to go one better next year. He said the hiatus from Telekom, which had nurtured him from 1995 until he left them after a serious knee injury and a six-month ban for a positive test last year for amphetamines, had made him more mature and focussed.


Team Telekom, sponsored by German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom, will be called 'T-Mobile Team' from 2004.


Bureau Report