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Article: Ullrich in a race with Armstrong to the top of the mountain.
- Article from:
- The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA)
- Article date:
- July 25, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Philadelphia Inquirer. 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 ...