But it ain’t quite enough for the locomotive that is Jan Ullrich. He's still a Kaiser without a throne in his homeland. With one day to go, it’s going to be a sweet victory for Levi Leipheimer at the Tour of Germany.
Assuming he has no problems on the final 168 km leg to Bonn tomorrow, Levi Leipheimer will take out the best stage race win of his career at the Tour of Germany. He will probably have his sponsor’s brew pumped directly to his house for eternity, too, as he has handed them an entire season’s publicity in the last 7 days.
For Gerolsteiner to come out on top in the all-German battle with T-Mobile is a huge result for the boys in sky blue. And I guess if you were to play the equivalent of “paper-scissors-stone” with mobile phones and mineral water then mineral water wins there, too!
Jan Ullrich rode a brilliant TT this afternoon, blasting the mild and rain-free 31.1 kilometres from Ludwigshafen to Weinheim in a barely credible 36’ 57” - I make that about 53 km/h, math fans! Not too shabby for a guy that claims to have had a cold for the last week, or considering that it was pan-flat and full-on into a headwind today.
If he can be bothered to get the engine running at speed next year, just think what he could still do .......... but then again we said that last year. And the year before that.
One of the men of the season, Bobby Julich, turned in another fine performance, losing just 12 seconds to Der Kaiser, with Levi in third. He had 1 minute 26 seconds to play with and came home with a comfortable half-minute on Big Jan.
A little further down the field, Jorg Jaksche came within a couple of seconds of knocking Georg Totschnig off the podium, but just ran out of road so hopefully Manolo Saiz won’t be too mad with him tonight .
Things all set for a procession to Bonn tomorrow. Keep it Pez for all the news.
Tour of Germany Stage 8 Ludwigshafen-Weinheim 31.1km
1 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile 36’ 57”
2 Bobby Julich (USA) CSC + 11”
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner + 54”
4 Jörg Jaksche (Ger) Liberty Seguros + 1’ 02”
5 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo + 1’ 11”
Overall after Stage 8
1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner 33hrs 31’ 28”
2 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile + 31”
3 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner + 1’ 23”
4 Jörg Jaksche (Ger) Liberty Seguros + 1’ 28”
5 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto + 1’ 53”
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