Jan Ullrich was ‘screaming on the sofa’ as Van der Poel delivered ‘perfect’ Tour de France finale

Tadej Pogačar dominated the Tour de France, but in the final stage in Paris he was beaten fair and square by a magnificent Mathieu van der Poel. Although the revamped finale in the French capital has not convinced everyone, Jan Ullrich was screaming from his sofa as he watched the action unfold. The former German rider was full of praise for both the spectacular final stage and Pogačar’s qualities as a cyclist.

First, Ullrich reflected on Pogačar, who added a fifth overall Tour de France victory to his palmarès. “This Tour was a Tour of superlatives,” Ullrich said on the Ulle & Rick podcast, according to Sport1. His podcast co-host Rick Zabel added: “I think he could have won eight stages.” In the end, the Slovenian finished the race with five stage victories.

That did nothing to diminish Pogačar’s greatness in Ullrich’s eyes. “He showed what he can do. That was the best performance of the Tour. He simply rides away and goes full gas to the top—that is what Pogačar can do,” the German said. Ullrich even believes the five-time winner could have created a considerably bigger gap in the general classification: “He could win the Tour by ten minutes if he wanted.”

The former Tour winner was therefore unequivocal in his assessment. “The experts agree: Tadej Pogačar has changed cycling and is the greatest of all time. That’s my view too.” Ullrich is also pleased that he never had to compete against the modern-day version of the Slovenian. “A modern Tadej Pogačar would have smoked all of us back then—Pantani, Armstrong and me.”

Ullrich has seen how dramatically professional cycling has changed since his own racing career. “Why didn’t we think of putting ice cubes in our jerseys to cool down?” the German asked with a laugh, although there was also a serious point behind the remark. Modern riders and teams carefully optimise cooling, nutrition, training and recovery. Ullrich also questioned parts of his old training programme: “I rode a third of my annual kilometres for no reason. I could have saved myself that.”

As a result, the former rider believes he could have been “much, much better” with the knowledge and methods available in the modern peloton. “I’m sure I could have been much, much better today. The old version of me, without doping, would definitely have been better with today’s methods.” Ullrich admitted in 2023 that he had used doping between 1996 and 2006. His 1997 Tour de France victory remains in the record books because it fell outside the period covered by the later ruling.

When Ullrich won the Tour in 1997, the race did not conclude with a final stage featuring the climb to Montmartre. That addition has only been used during the past two editions of the Tour. Zabel, who was in Paris for Sunday’s stage, was hugely impressed by what he witnessed. “That was the greatest moment I’ve experienced as a cycling fan. What happened in those 500 metres was absolute madness.”

“The noise when they rode past was incredible. I got goosebumps. It was one of the best Tour finishes ever,” said the son of former top sprinter Erik Zabel. Ullrich wholeheartedly agreed with his co-host’s assessment. “It couldn’t have been more exciting. I was screaming on the sofa. You couldn’t have written a better script. This finale fitted this Tour perfectly.”