Should Jan retire?

Ullefan said:

Jan just isn't the same as he used to be. Last year has proven to be no fluke. Jan, do yourself a favour and retire now...

Wow with fans (freinds) like this, who needs enemies? Just because he can't win the TdF he should quit cycling 😕 ?

Just my view : I think retirement is entirely subjective issue (unless you hit 65
and you have no choice but too retire !).

Jan shouldn't retire. He should try again for the TdF next year, when he won't have to contend with LA. That doesn't mean JU can win over Basso, etc., but it does mean that he has a much much better chance. He should recruit more mountain domestiques who can TTT, consolidate Kloden's position as domestique, and keep on trying to make the German public believe he still has the potential to win the tour.

He should accept the reality of having to go into the wind tunnel for testing of his time trial position. He's an excellent ITTist, but that doesn't mean he couldn't improve. Even LA, an excellent ITTist, has obtained meaningful gains from small changes in position.

He should rethink his typical racing schedule build-up to the TdF.

Ullefan said:

Jan just isn't the same as he used to be. Last year has proven to be no fluke. Jan, do yourself a favour and retire now...

Are you asking this question - as a disappointed JU fan after todays stage ?
Or is it because LA is retiring, that JU ought to retire ?
Or is it because you think JU will never win another grand tour ?

For what it's worth, I think retirement is subjective.
But if a rider is feeling good and is cycling well - why retire ?
If the rider likes to compete and is happy with his/her performance, and the team are happy to have him, then he ought to continue.

Specifically in relation to JU, he has had a good TDF this year.
OK, he's not in top spot but his performance has been good and brave, and given that he crashed immediately before the first stage, I think he's done well in the 2005 TDF.

At 31, he's got plenty of time to try to win other races like the Giro.

It's interesting but nothing replaces competition for any sportsperson.
The same buzz you get from competing, can never really be replicated in retirement.
Riis has said that even though management is great and he's still in the cycling world, it will never come close to actually competing.

All riders are a long time retired.

Ullrich has a good shot at next years tour. Of course so does Basso. Take 2 crashes and LA out of the equation and he is ready to win it. The tactics next year will change with LA not riding. T-mobile vs. CSC vs Discovery. It will be a whole new TdF.

I would not like to be in Ullrich's place anyway. If he wins next year, everybody will say the he won because LA was not competing, and thus dimishing his potential victory.

sopas said:

I would not like to be in Ullrich's place anyway. If he wins next year, everybody will say the he won because LA was not competing, and thus dimishing his potential victory.

A win is a win. I would just be happy to get it if I were him. Of coure the critics will let him have it, but havent they already done that?

sopas said:

I would not like to be in Ullrich's place anyway. If he wins next year, everybody will say the he won because LA was not competing, and thus dimishing his potential victory.

they will say that about anyone just not ullrich but a win is win .

nonameboy said:

they will say that about anyone just not ullrich but a win is win .

Exactly, whoever wins is going to be critisized by his critics, rivals, and whoever just flat out doesnt like him. If it were me I would look at like I am a TdF champ and nothing anyone does or says can take that away from me.

I think you're all being very pessimistic.

If you look at JU's career, you'd see that he debuted at a very high level (he won the TDF in 1997 at the age of 23, a phenomenal performance and in the previous year he managed to finish ahead of the greatest modern stage race winner, Miguel Indurain, in his (JU's) debut season).

He never recaptured the TDF but it is obvious that he feels competitive every year since 1997.

Whether JU can win the TDF next year, isn't the issue.

Until JU decides that he is no longer competitive, he ought to continue to race.

thebluetrain said:

Exactly, whoever wins is going to be critisized by his critics, rivals, and whoever just flat out doesnt like him. If it were me I would look at like I am a TdF champ and nothing anyone does or says can take that away from me.

thats right the tour will not end just cause armstrong is retiring.

nonameboy said:

thats right the tour will not end just cause armstrong is retiring.

Of course Ullrich and Basso will be the favorites but I cant wait to see how Popo, Valverde, and Rasmussen do. Even Mancebo, Landis and Leipheimer will be exciting to watch. The approach to the tour and tactics will change because LA is not there.

Ullefan said:

Jan just isn't the same as he used to be. Last year has proven to be no fluke. Jan, do yourself a favour and retire now...

Ullefan .... Isn't the same ???? OMG... You must be suffering from a severe bout of depression in the hope that JU was going to put it to LA. The ride of Ullrichs today was fantastic... He was off the back , Then on ..... With both Basso & Armstrong working him over. I became a bigger fan of Ullrichs today. He promised he was going to take the fight all the way to Paris and he just fell short.
Ullrich is the "only" rider that has ever worried Armstrong in the TDF in a long time. Since Pantani... Retirement would be a shame.
If it was not for Ullrich the past 6 Julys we would not have had a contested TDF.
I hope he takes the Worlds.....

sopas said:

I would not like to be in Ullrich's place anyway. If he wins next year, everybody will say the he won because LA was not competing, and thus dimishing his potential victory.

There isn't a fan on here that wouldn't have gave "both nuts' and their 1st born to be in Ullrichs place. There is nothing about a TDF victory that is diminished.

There's no shame in winning the TdF only after LA retires. So what if whoever wins couldn't win whilst LA was around -- they still will have won next year? I never understood, for example, why Savoldelli got such criticism for winning his prior Giro under a depleted set of competitors for various reasons. Who cares who his competitors were, so long as they were either beaten or unable to continue participation in the Giro?

Everybody knows LA will have the unparallelled TdF record of 7 wins. It's no shame to lose to somebody like that. :o

musette said:

There's no shame in winning the TdF only after LA retires. So what if whoever wins couldn't win whilst LA was around -- they still will have won next year? I never understood, for example, why Savoldelli got such criticism for winning his prior Giro under a depleted set of competitors for various reasons. Who cares who his competitors were, so long as they were either beaten or unable to continue participation in the Giro?

Everybody knows LA will have the unparallelled TdF record of 7 wins. It's no shame to lose to somebody like that. :o

Yes but the difference here is that LA is retiring undefeated. When Indurain retired this debate was not open because Indurain was defeated on his last TdF, and therefore nobody dared to say the Ullrich's Victory in 1997 was because of Indurain's absence. But next year whoever wins will be subject of critics. If Ullrich had managed to defeat LA and win the TdF this year, (which is not possible anymore), then another victory of Ullrich next year would rise no comments. But again, LA is leaving the sport undefeated!! and it doesn't seem to me that he is retiring because he can't win again.

sopas said:

Yes but the difference here is that LA is retiring undefeated. When Indurain retired this debate was not open because Indurain was defeated on his last TdF, and therefore nobody dared to say the Ullrich's Victory in 1997 was because of Indurain's absence. But next year whoever wins will be subject of critics. If Ullrich had managed to defeat LA and win the TdF this year, (which is not possible anymore), then another victory of Ullrich next year would rise no comments. But again, LA is leaving the sport undefeated!! and it doesn't seem to me that he is retiring because he can't win again.

I think one of Ullrich's problems is that because of having to face LA in the TDF, he has for several years, tried to concentrate on the tour. Few early season races, few late season races, just a focus on the tour.

Jan is in great shape right now. He should ride the Vuelta this year, and next year do some classics, as well as the Giro and the TDF.

He is a strong rider, who still has amazing power. He should expand his racing programme beyond July and bring home some wins for T-Mobile.

It doesn't matter whether LA is retiring because he can no longer ride, or because of his actual reasons. Anybody winning after a SEVEN-CONSECUTIVE winner who either decides to leave for other reasons, or who decides he can't ride any more effectively, and who retires with the yellow jersey win in his last year, will always have the same perception problems if they rode with him for some years and was unable to defeat him.

Maybe Valverde and Cunego and Popo wouldn't have those problems. But JU, Basso, etc. will have the perception problems. But that is life and they will just have to live with that perception, should they be able to win in 06.
.

Why should he retire? 😕 Lance Armstrong is not the be all and end all of the sport.

Ullrich is still a mighty fine rider and he's still competitive and if he still enjoys what he does why consider retirement?