(Munich) “I took cocaine en masse, I drank whiskey like water, until I was close to death”: in an Amazon Prime documentary available at the end of November, the former Cyclist Jan Ullrich looks back on his descent into hell five years ago.
The series of four episodes dedicated to Jan Ullrich, winner of the Tour de France in 1997, and entitled Der Gejagte (The prey), will be available on Amazon Prime on November 28, a few days before the cyclist’s 50th birthday on December 2.
Ullrich talks about his “immense fall”, five years ago, and his “personal journey to Santiago”. “It was life or death. I really wasn’t doing well. I took cocaine in droves, I drank whiskey like water, until I was close to death,” he admits.
From now on, “the most important thing for me is to no longer want to seek limits for the rest of my life, but on the contrary to find the right balance,” explained the Rostock native during the presentation of the documentary at Munich, for his first public appearance on Thursday.
He felt he had “tested the limits sufficiently, both upwards and downwards. I don’t need this anymore.” “Twenty years later, we recognize the mistakes we made,” he said.
For the documentary, the cyclist got back on the bike and returned to the scenes of his great exploits in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“The goal was for me to go back into the past, to return to the places where I won big races, but also where I made mistakes, which made me grow,” explains Ullrich, who thus reveals its entire story.
The German saw the end of his career overshadowed by doping. Excluded from the Grande Boucle in 2006 on the eve of the start, he was convicted of doping a year later by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and all of his results obtained after May 2005 were annulled.
He eventually admitted in 2013 to having used doping products.
“It would be wrong to say that I didn’t deceive anyone. For me, I was focused on my opponents, but the fans are obviously part of it,” he says.
Ullrich hopes that “the spectators, the supporters, the people who see this, will be able to put themselves in my shoes a little”.
“I feel lighter and I have made peace with my past,” added Ullrich, who confided that he had rediscovered the pleasure of cycling with his children.
