Jan Ullrich

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Jan Ullrich

Ullrich at the 2006 Giro d'Italia
Personal information
Full name	Jan Ullrich
Nickname	Ulle, Der Kaiser
Date of birth	December 2, 1973 (1973-12-02) (age 34)
Country	Germany
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Amateur team(s)
1987 1987–1989 1991 1992–1994	SG Dynamo Rostock SC Dynamo Berlin SC Berlin RG Hamburg
Professional team(s)
1995–2002 2003 2003 2004–2006	Team Telekom Team Coast Team Bianchi T-Mobile Team
Major wins
Tour de France (1997), 7 stages Vuelta a España (1999), 2 stages Giro d'Italia, 1 stage World Time Trial Champion (1999, 2001) Olympic Road Race (2000) Tour de Suisse (2004, 2006)
Infobox last updated on:
February 27, 2007

Jan Ullrich (born December 2, 1973, in Rostock, East Germany) is a German former professional road bicycle racer. In 1997, he was the first German to win the Tour de France. He went on to achieve five second place finishes, along with a fourth place (2004) and a third place finish (2005). In 2006, Ullrich was barred from competing in the Tour de France amid speculation of having doped. In late February 2007, he announced his retirement at a press conference. Many consider Ullrich one of the most talented riders of all time, possessing great power with a soft, athletic style. Despite, or perhaps because of this talent, critics consider Ullrich to be "lazy" as he was notorious for allowing himself to get out of shape during the off season.

Ullrich won a gold and a silver medal in the Olympics 2000 in Sydney, as well as the 1999 Vuelta a España. Although not known as a one-day race specialist, he won the HEW Cyclassics in front of an adoring home crowd in Hamburg in 1997, and has made podium finishes in other editions of the HEW Cyclassics, and the hilly classic Clásica de San Sebastián. His victorious ride in the 1997 Tour de France led to a bicycle sports boom in Germany.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early training

Ullrich won his first bicycle race at the age of eleven. He was educated in the sports training system of the German Democratic Republic attending the KJS sports school in Berlin in 1986. In 1988, he was champion of the German Democratic Republic. After the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany in 1989, Ullrich was still at the KJS but within two years the school closed. Subsequently, he, his trainer Peter Sager and his teammates joined an amateur club in Hamburg until 1994. In 1991, he was 5th in the amateur cyclo-cross world championships.^[1]

In 1993, whilst still at the Hamburg club, Ullrich surprisingly won the World Amateur Road Race championship in Oslo. At the same time, Lance Armstrong won the professional world championship.

After this and other successes, Ullrich became a professional member of Team Telekom. From 1994 to 2002, he lived in Merdingen, Germany, with his long-term partner Gaby Weiss, with whom he had a daughter, Sarah Maria, on 1st July 2003. They moved to Scherzingen, Switzerland in 2002. Since separating in 2005, allegedly due to Weiss's reluctance to be in the limelight which conflicted with Ullrich's enjoyment of celebrity life, Ullrich has continued to live in Scherzingen whilst Gaby returned with Sarah to Merdingen. In September 2006 he married Sara Steinhauser, sister of his former teammate and training partner, Tobias Steinhauser. Their first child, a son called Max, was born five weeks prematurely on August 7, 2007.

[edit] Early Professional Career

1994 with Peter Becker acting as his agent, Ullrich signed for the Telekom team under Belgian manager Walter Godefroot. He then finished third behind winner Chris Boardman of Britain in the world time trial championship in Sicily.^[2]

In Ullrich's first one and a half years as a professional, he was inconspicuous. In 1995 he won the German national time trial champion. He also achieved some top ten placings on stages of the 1995 Tour de Suisse. Aged 21 he had wanted to start the 1995 Tour de France but Deutsche Telekom team director Walter Godefroot thought it was too early. Instead he went to the small German stage race, the Hofbrau Cup, where he ended 3rd overall. Ullrich also started the Vuelta later that year only to abandon the race on stage 12.

[edit] 1996 Tour de France

Ullrich gave up a place in the 1996 German Olympic team in order to ride his first Tour. Starting his first day at the 1996 Tour de France, he finished the prologue 33 seconds down. He stayed within the top twenty until the first day in the mountains on stage 7 when Miguel Indurain famously cracked. Jan finished 30 seconds back, 22 behind his teammate Bjarne Riis while Indurain finished over 4 minutes down. On the following stage, he finished in the same group as Indurain 40 seconds behind Riis. On stage 9, Riis rode into the yellow jersey while Jan finished 44 seconds back and also into 5th place overall 1 minute 38 seconds down from Riis. Over the course of the final mountain stages, Jan rode into a sensational second place behind his Danish teammate, Bjarne Riis, but he conceded time on each mountain stage, eventually being nearly 4 minutes behind Riis. However, he won the final individual time trial and secured himself his first Tour stage win. Not only did he win the time trial ahead of Miguel Indurain and Abraham Olano, he cut 2 minutes 18 seconds into Riis's lead in the general classification. This led to the comment by Indurain that Jan would win the Tour some day, adding that it was a remarkable victory considering that Ullrich had been helping Riis all during the Tour. Jan dismissed suggestions he would have done better if he had not had to help Riis, saying that Riis had inspired the whole team.^[3] Jan finished his first tour in second place at 1 minute 41 seconds from his teammate Bjarne Riis.

[edit] 1997 Tour de France

Ullrich with teammate Udo Bölts crossing the Vosges mountains during the 1997 Tour de France.

Before the 1997 Tour, Ullrich had two wins in 1997. They were a stage in the Tour de Suisse and the German national Road Race championship a week before the tour started. Despite being a domestique of the previous year's winner Bjarne Riis, Ullrich quickly became the favorite in the 1997 Tour de France. He started strongly, finishing second in the prologue behind Chris Boardman. On stage 9 which was the first mountain stage which was won by Frenchman Laurent Brochard, Ullrich showed loyalty as he worked for Riis throughout the stage. Only on the last ascent of the day when Richard Virenque attacked did Ullrich react. Riis struggled to keep up and finished 30 seconds back behind the trio of Virenque, Marco Pantani and Ullrich. On the following stage 10 from Luchon to Arcalis Andorra with Riis again falling back as the pace was heating up, Ullrich was seen riding back to the Telekom teamcar to ask permission to attack. He returned to the lead group and pushed ahead up the climb leaving the great climbers Pantani and Virenque in his wake. It was a dominant win where he finished over a minute ahead of Pantani and Virenque^[4] which earned him his first yellow jersey, and when the German press started following the Tour more closely. For this performance and ability to keep his nerves, the French sports newspaper L'Équipe, considered him to be one of the top bicycle racers with the words Voilà le Patron ("Here is the boss"). Several days later, Ullrich won the Stage 12 individual time trial: it was another dominant win whereby Ullrich won an individual time trial with a three minute gap between himself and the second placed rider, Virenque, who had started out three minutes in front of him.

On the stage to the Alpe d'Huez, Marco Pantani launched a devastating attack. Ullrich, who was 9 minutes ahead of Pantani in the general classification, produced a great ride to limit his losses to only 47 seconds.^[5] Again on the Morzine stage, Pantani attacked and won the stage, while Ullrich once again was able to limit his time losses. In the final time trial, which was won by Abraham Olano, Ullrich further extended his lead over Richard Virenque and on the following day became the first German to be the overall winner. At the age of 23, Ullrich was the fourth youngest winner of the Tour since 1947. Two weeks later, he won the German semi-classic the Hews Cycling Classic in Hamburg. A further two weeks later Ullrich was beaten by Italian Davide Rebellin in a bunch sprint in the Cycling World Cup event the GP Suisse. He was chosen "sports person of the year" in Germany in 1997.

[edit] The eternal second; The 1998 Tour

Ullrich was the defending champion of the 1998 Tour de France. On the stage 7 individual time trial, he took the yellow jersey after a very powerful display over 58 km of undulating roads. But several stages later, Marco Pantani blew the Tour apart with a storming victory which began on the ascent of Galibier. Ullrich was without Telekom support when Pantani attacked. Pantani stormed past the leaders of the climb and went over the top of Galibier alone. It was a dull and misty day and the roads were wet. The descent was dangerous and Pantani increased the lead. By the bottom of the final climb, Les Deux Alpes, Pantani's lead was nearly four minutes. Telekom tried to limit the losses by bringing Udo Bölts and then Bjarne Riis to pace Ullrich up the final climb. As Pantani crossed the finishing line he was in yellow. Ullrich would finish almost nine minutes back dropping to fourth place overall at almost six minutes behind Pantani.^[6]

On the following stage 16 on the Col de la Madeleine, Ullrich attacked from the peloton. Only Pantani could match his strength. Ullrich did all the work up the Col. Once they got over the top, the pair started to work together. Ullrich won a photo-finish sprint and moved into third overall, and in the final stage 20 time trial, Ullrich won the time trial and moved into second overall. The Tour of 1998 was haunted by doping affairs, giving it the nickname "Tour de Dopage".

In the following year during the inaugural Deutschland Tour, Ullrich fell heavily after getting entangled with Udo Bölts during stage 3 and was taken to hospital. Later it was found that he had a right knee injury and that he could not ride the 1999 Tour de France, which ended in the first of seven Tour victories for American Lance Armstrong. After his 6 week recovery, Ullrich set his targets on the world time trial championships in October by riding the Vuelta.

[edit] 1999 Vuelta a España

On the first mountain stage, Ullrich narrowly won against the defending Vuelta a España champion Abraham Olano of Team ONCE in a group sprint that included Frank Vandenbroucke, Roberto Heras and Davide Rebellin. Olano took the leaders golden amarillo jersey with Ullrich second overall. Olano won the following stage which was an Individual time trial with almost one minute over Ullrich and further increased his lead in stage 8. On stage 11, Ullrich gained 30 seconds back on Olano. Ullrich took the lead on stage 12 which was won by Igor González de Galdeano, Olano cracked and finished over 7 minutes behind Ullrich. González had moved into second overall and became a threat to Ullrich. On stage 18 there was a concerted effort by the Banesto team and other Spanish teams to crack Ullrich who struggled on the early part of the final climb of the stage but recovered well to limit his losses to González. In the final Individual time trial, Ullrich stamped his authority with a dominating win by almost three minutes over the second placed rider on the stage and building his overall lead to over four minutes on González. Ullrich won his second major grand Tour. Several weeks later Ullrich became the world time trial champion with a convincing but not overwhelming ride over Sweden's Michael Andersson and Briton Chris Boardman.

[edit] The eternal second behind Lance Armstrong

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (August 2007)

The 2000 Tour de France saw former champions Ullrich and Marco Pantani and defending champion Armstrong line up against each other for the first time. However, Armstrong proved too strong to upstage, claiming his second Tour win. Armstrong would win again in the 2001 Tour de France, despite Ullrich arriving at the Tour obviously in form, finishing in fourth place just three seconds behind third-place Armstrong in the opening prologue. His ride in the 2001 Tour was memorable for his crash during which Armstrong waited for him to return to his bike. In interviews, Ullrich cited his failures to defeat Armstrong despite his preparations as his reasons for falling into depression in the next year.

Medal record
Competitor for  Germany
Road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
Gold	2000 Sydney	Road Race
Silver	2000 Sydney	Time Trial
World Championships
Gold	1999 Verona	Elite Men's Time Trial
Gold	2001 Lisbon	Elite Men's Time Trial

Despite his failure to ascend the top of the podium in the Tour de France, Ullrich delivered an outstanding performance in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. After establishing a 3-man breakaway with Telekom teammates Andreas Klöden and Alexandre Vinokourov, Ullrich won the gold medal with Vinokourov, in second place, and Klöden rounding out the all-Telekom podium. He established himself as a world-class time trialist by winning the Silver medal in the individual time-trial event, losing by a small margin to Viatcheslav Ekimov and beating rival Armstrong into third place.

In May 2002, Ullrich temporarily had his driver's license revoked after a drunk driving incident.^[7] After a positive blood sample for amphetamine in June of 2002,^[8] Ullrich's contract with Team Telekom was ended, and he was banned for 6 months. He explained that the positive result was from ingesting the recreational drug ecstasy, which had been cut with amphetamine.^[9] He had not been racing since January due to a recurring knee injury^[10], and the German Cycling Federation's disciplinary committee agreed that he was not attempting to use the drug for performance enhancement, so he was only given a minimum suspension.^[11]

In January 2003, Ullrich and his longtime advisor Rudy Pevenage joined the Team Coast outfit,^[12] but after severe financial problems, Coast pulled its sponsorship, and Team Bianchi was formed. He finally returned to racing in March of 2003, preparing for the Tour de France.

The 2003 Tour de France would become a memorable one. Nobody, including Ullrich himself, knew what to expect from him after such hectic years. For the first time in years he was not considered one of the top favorites; however, Armstrong still considered him very dangerous. In the first week, Ullrich got sick and almost retired from the race. In the Alps stages Ullrich lost one and a half minutes on Armstrong and his Tour seemed lost. In the 12th stage, Ullrich fought back hard in the time trial, as he became the only one to finish within an hour. Armstrong was overpowered and had trouble with the heat, and lost one and a half minutes to Ullrich. Ullrich now found himself within a minute of Armstrong in the classification. The next day, he closed the gap in the first mountain stage by another 19 seconds and the clash would become epic: Ullrich seemed stronger than ever as he was able to stay with Armstrong in the mountains. Two days later Ullrich was able to ride away from Armstrong on the Tourmalet, but he could not sustain his pace and Armstrong caught up. In the final climb of that stage Ullrich dictated the pace, and it seemed that Armstrong was not in the condition to attack. More than half way into the climb, Armstrong's handlebar got caught in a spectator's bag and he fell. Ullrich decided not to take advantage of the situation and waited, as is common in cycling when a contender crashes. Armstrong caught up to the group within a few minutes, and then attacked shortly afterwards. For some time, whether Ullrich waited for Armstrong to remount was subject of intense debate, although Ullrich himself asserted that he did indeed wait and did not attack. In a recent interview Armstrong admitted that Ullrich did wait for him, and that Armstrong himself had been misled at the time by Tyler Hamilton's gesture and assertion that Ullrich had not waited.

According to Armstrong, his fall gave him such an adrenaline boost that he could attack. Ullrich lost 40 seconds in the final kilometers, but all was not over: the 2nd, and final, time trial would be decisive. In that time trial, Ullrich suffered a dramatic crash and saw a potential stage and tour victory disappear. In the general classification, Ullrich ended 2nd with a gap of just 61 seconds in one of the greatest Tours de France in history.

Ullrich's remarkable comeback was acknowledged by the Germans as they gave him the sportsman of the year award later that year.

In terms of finishes, Ullrich could be compared with Raymond Poulidor, who was called the "eternal second" (with the difference that Poulidor never won the Tour de France). Also like Poulidor, Ullrich has not donned the Maillot jaune since 1998. A better comparison would probably be to Joop Zoetemelk, who won the Tour once as well and finished in second place six times, only once more than Ullrich.

For the 2004 season, Ullrich returned to Team Telekom (now named T-Mobile, after a popular division of Deutsche Telekom). Ullrich won the Tour de Suisse during his preparation for the Tour de France. In the 2004 Tour de France, he finished in fourth place, 8:50 behind Armstrong. It was Ullrich's first finish lower than second. T-Mobile teammate Andreas Klöden finished second, and Ivan Basso third. Ullrich said that he had been infected by a cold from his year old baby daughter, and was not able to ride to his full capacity.

Jan Ullrich in Hanover.

For 2005, Ullrich again captained the talented T-Mobile squad. As was his normal routine to prepare for the Tour de France, Ullrich maintained a low profile for much of the 2005 early season campaign, surfacing to test his preparedness in the 2005 Tour de Suisse, in which he finished third after Aitor González (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Michael Rogers (Quick Step-Innergetic).

Ullrich has been constantly criticized, and sometimes parodied, for his weight, especially for his big gains in the winter but has maintained that he always races it off in time for the Tour. Compared to his perennial rival, Lance Armstrong, Ullrich has been said to have a greater natural talent and perhaps a more advantageous physiology that would prevail were it not for Armstrong's supposedly unique training regimen and the dedication of his team to working solely for him at all times. Armstrong has conceded that it was Ullrich whom he considered to be his most dangerous rival, going as far as admitting that he would examine photos of Ullrich in the early season races to see how his form was developing.

The day before the 2005 Tour de France, during a training ride, Ullrich crashed horrifically: he was closely following (drafting) his team car when it was forced to make an emergency stop when a vehicle unexpectedly pulled out in front if it. He was unable to stop and plowed through the back windshield, narrowly avoiding cutting a major artery by mere millimetres and ending up in the back seat of the car covered in glass and blood - he was not wearing a helmet at the time. He was extremely lucky not to be killed.

Less than 24 hours later a stitched and post trauma-shocked Ullrich was passed by Lance Armstrong in the first stage time trial after starting a minute before him, causing speculation that he was once more doomed to be beaten by the American. Ullrich fell again in the mountains, bruising his ribs. During several other pivotal moments in the Tour, he could not keep up with Armstrong or Ivan Basso. Ullrich began focusing on finishing ahead of the surprise star of the mountains, Michael Rasmussen, for a podium position in the general classification. At the individual time trials nearing the end of the 2005 Tour de France Ullrich had a stellar time trial, demolishing the competition, save Lance Armstrong who came through to set an even quicker time near the end of the stage. Rasmussen, who is not considered to be a good time trialist, had a terrible time trial, consisting of several crashes and around five bike changes, which ultimately gave Ullrich a podium place in the Tour de France.

[edit] Post-Armstrong

Armstrong retired after the Tour de France in 2005. At the same time, Ullrich also speculated about retiring, but decided to ride for one or two more years^[13]. Ullrich seemed more motivated than ever to win at least one more Grand Tour (either the Tour, Giro or Vuelta ). Notorious for coming out of the winter with serious weight problems (see above) and in bad condition, he began his preparation for the 2006 season early, with his mentor Rudy Pevanage finally back in the T-mobile staff and watching his every move. Early reports indicated that Jan was indeed in much better shape than in previous years and would be ready for what could be his second victory in the Tour de France. Ullrich finished 115th in the Tour de Romandie on April 30. However, Jan injured his knee in the off season and this could have limited his performance in the 2006 Tour de France, had he participated (see below).

In May, riding in the 2006 Giro d'Italia, not to win but to prepare himself for the Tour de France, Ullrich targeted the Stage 11 50km ITT, and won it by a decisive 28 seconds over Maglia Rosa Ivan Basso, who beat 3rd placed Marco Pinotti by another 33 seconds (which means Ullrich beat everyone except for Basso by over a minute). Only five riders were able to finish within two minutes of Ullrich's time.

Ullrich dropped out of the Giro during Stage 19, with back pain. Team Director Rudy Pevenage stated that the problem was not bad but merely as a precaution to avoid possible Tour de France problems.

He won the Tour de Suisse for a second time in preparation for the Tour de France, winning the final time trial in decisive and dramatic fashion jumping from third to first in the GC.

[edit] Operación Puerto doping case

In the weeks prior to the 2006 Tour de France, Ullrich's name was mentioned in a large Spanish doping scandal, nicknamed Operación Puerto doping case. Ullrich himself has always denied the rumors. However on 30 June 2006, one day before the start, he was suspended from participating in the Tour de France.^[14]

Ullrich's biggest rival (according to many experts) Team CSC's Ivan Basso, who finished 2nd in 2005, and several other riders were also excluded. The decision to exclude Ullrich could be based on several text messages from his mentor, Rudy Pevenage, with Doctor Fuentes. Ullrich himself stated that he has nothing to do with Fuentes and he will try to prove this. If found guilty by the doping authorities, Ullrich faces an almost certain career-ending suspension.

On 20 July 2006, Jan Ullrich was fired from T-Mobile in relation to the aforementioned accusations. T-Mobile general manager Olaf Ludwig announced the news during the 18th stage of the Tour de France between Morzine and Macon. Ullrich published a statement on his website saying that his dismissal was 'unacceptable.'

"I am very disappointed that this decision was not communicated to me personally but that it was faxed to my lawyers," Ullrich added. "I find it shameful that, after so many years of good cooperation and after all I have done for the team, I am being treated as a fax number."

Rumors linked Ullrich with Discovery Channel, as well as with fellow retired cyclist Lance Armstrong. Discovery Channel opted for Levi Leipheimer instead, as the future of Ullrich remained uncertain.

During an interview on August 3, 2006, doping expert Werner Franke claimed that Ullrich purchased about €35,000 worth of doping products a year based on documents uncovered in the Operación Puerto doping case.^[15] A German court imposed a gag order on Franke after it found there was not enough evidence to link Ullrich to doping.^[16] On September 14, 2006 German officials raided Ullrich's house and spent several hours collecting DNA material while Ullrich was honeymooning with his new wife Sara. On 4 April 2007, it was announced that Ullrich's DNA sample, had "without a doubt" matched 9 bags of blood that were taken from Eufemiano Fuentes' office.^[17]

On October 18, 2006, Ullrich had laid off his personal physiotherapist Birgit Krohme. Speculations quickly rose that this was a sign that Ullrich had given up hope of returning to racing. Ullrich denied these rumors, however. On 25 October 2006, a document from the Spanish court appeared on Ullrich's website which stated that no charges would be filed against him.

On Monday, February 26, 2007, after months of speculation, Ullrich announced his retirement from cycling. At the press conference in Hamburg he said, "Today, I'm ending my career as a professional cyclist. I never once cheated as a cyclist," and revealed that he would remain tied to professional cycling as an advisor to Team Volksbank.

[edit] See also

• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

[edit] Signature bike frame line

In May 2006 Ullrich launched a signature bike frame line, the "Jan Ullrich Collection"^[18], which he helped to develop. There are three models catering for all types of cyclist, from enthusiast to pro. They take their names after significant times in Jan's career. The 'Campione', the 'Olymp' after his Gold and Silver Olympic medals, and finally, the 'Grand Tour' after his Tour de France victory in 1997. They range in price from 1395 to 2995 Euros and are available only as frames (not as complete bikes).

[edit] Quotes

• "I have seen many lean riders in the peloton, but very few Tour winners", in response to criticism about his weight.
• "My motivation doesn't come from rivals, but because I love cycling. That's what motivates me…. I don't get my motivation by putting the picture of my rival on the mirror"
• "Totally fucked up", replying to a journalist who asked him how he felt after winning stage 12 of the 2003 Tour de France.

[edit] Palmarès

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Jan Ullrich

• Official Homepage
• Jan Ullrich at the Internet Movie Database

Awards
Preceded by Frank Busemann	German Sportsman of the Year 1997	Succeeded by Georg Hackl
Preceded by Sven Hannawald	German Sportsman of the Year 2003	Succeeded by Michael Schumacher
Preceded by Johan Museeuw	Vélo d'Or 1997	Succeeded by Marco Pantani
Sporting positions
Preceded by Abraham Olano	Winner of the Vuelta a España 1999	Succeeded by Roberto Heras
Preceded by Bjarne Riis	Winner of the Tour de France 1997	Succeeded by Marco Pantani
Preceded by Abraham Olano	World Time Trial Champion 1999	Succeeded by Serhiy Honchar
Preceded by Serhiy Honchar	World Time Trial Champion 2001	Succeeded by Santiago Botero

v • d • e Tour de France Yellow jersey winners 1903 Maurice Garin · 1904 Henri Cornet · 1905 Louis Trousselier · 1906 René Pottier · 1907-1908 Lucien Petit-Breton · 1909 François Faber · 1910 Octave Lapize · 1911 Gustave Garrigou · 1912 Odile Defraye · 1913-1914 Philippe Thys · 1915-1918 World War I · 1919 Firmin Lambot · 1920 Philippe Thys · 1921 Léon Scieur · 1922 Firmin Lambot · 1923 Henri Pélissier · 1924-1925 Ottavio Bottecchia · 1926 Lucien Buysse · 1927-1928 Nicolas Frantz · 1929 Maurice De Waele · 1930 André Leducq · 1931 Antonin Magne · 1932 André Leducq · 1933 Georges Speicher · 1934 Antonin Magne · 1935 Romain Maes · 1936 Sylvère Maes · 1937 Roger Lapébie · 1938 Gino Bartali · 1939 Sylvère Maes · 1940-1946 World War II · 1947 Jean Robic · 1948 Gino Bartali · 1949 Fausto Coppi · 1950 Ferdinand Kübler · 1951 Hugo Koblet · 1952 Fausto Coppi · 1953-1955 Louison Bobet · 1956 Roger Walkowiak · 1957 Jacques Anquetil · 1958 Charly Gaul · 1959 Federico Bahamontes · 1960 Gastone Nencini · 1961-1964 Jacques Anquetil · 1965 Felice Gimondi · 1966 Lucien Aimar · 1967 Roger Pingeon · 1968 Jan Janssen · 1969-1972 Eddy Merckx · 1973 Luis Ocaña · 1974 Eddy Merckx · 1975 Bernard Thévenet · 1976 Lucien Van Impe · 1977 Bernard Thévenet · 1978-1979 Bernard Hinault · 1980 Joop Zoetemelk · 1981-1982 Bernard Hinault · 1983-1984 Laurent Fignon · 1985 Bernard Hinault · 1986 Greg LeMond · 1987 Stephen Roche · 1988 Pedro Delgado · 1989-1990 Greg LeMond · 1991-1995 Miguel Indurain · 1996 Bjarne Riis · 1997 Jan Ullrich · 1998 Marco Pantani · 1999-2005 Lance Armstrong · 2006 Óscar Pereiro · 2007 Alberto Contador

v • d • e Tour de France Maillot blanc (White jersey) winners 1975: Moser | 1976: Martínez Heredia | 1977: Thurau | 1978: Lubberding | 1979: Bernaudeau | 1980: Van der Velde | 1981: Winnen | 1982: Anderson | 1983: Fignon | 1984: LeMond | 1985: Parra | 1986: Hampsten | 1987: Alcalá | 1988: Breukink | 1989: Philipot | 1990: Delion | 1991: Mejía | 1992: Bouwmans | 1993: Martín | 1994: Pantani | 1995: Pantani | 1996: Ullrich | 1997: Ullrich | 1998: Ullrich | 1999: Salmon | 2000: Mancebo | 2001: Sevilla | 2002: Basso | 2003: Menchov | 2004: Karpets | 2005: Popovych | 2006: Cunego | 2007: Contador