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Article: Ullrich in a race with Armstrong to the top of the mountain.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- July 25, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Bob Ford
ST.-MAIXENT-L'ECOLE, France _ The man who chases Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France, and who will make his final desperate play to catch him on Saturday, has demons of his own riding just off his rear wheel.
In some ways, Jan Ullrich is the opposite of Armstrong. But Ullrich is also what Armstrong might have become had cancer not hardened the champion's resolve and sent him with a dedicated burst from the tunnel of near-death.
Both men are the products of broken homes, raised by their mothers in modest circumstances. Ullrich had it worse, though. He grew up in Rostock, then in East Germany, a gray outpost in a cold war that ...