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  Steady as he goes Pantani forces Julich, Ullrich to revise their tour plans
Posted: Tuesday July 28, 1998 10:29 AM
Special from L'Equipe, the French sports daily PARIS (L'Equipe) -- Bobby Julich is still second overall, but behind Marco Pantani now. According to him, the Italian is unbeatable in the Alps and has improved a lot in the time trials, so Julich says he would be content to finish second. "If I win the Tour, it's going to take place in the Alps, because after that it will be very hard, because Jan Ullrich is very good in time trials," Bobby Julich had said Sunday. Monday night, after a legendary stage where he finished in fifth place, the Cofidis' American rider was forced to revise his analysis. Things had changed quite a bit, his new rival having no hair, speaking Italian and having the privilege of owning the mountains. "Pantani is incredible. I knew that he was very dangerous but I never thought he could pull something like that. Today we lived an epic day," he admitted. When Julich saw Pantani take off in the Galibier's last few turns, he didn't even try to follow him. "It was useless. To follow him at times like that is impossible. There were about 40 kilometers left and I chose to stay in the group with Ullrich instead. I knew the last climb was difficult and I was freezing. At one point, I even thought I was going to crack because of the cold," Julich remembered. Julich grabbed some rain gear when they reached the top of the Galibier, but he missed a turn when he tried to put it on. "To say the truth, I thought it was over, right then. I was afraid of losing everything because of a stupid fall. But in the end, I was back on the road pretty quickly and I made it back to the group because the descent was really very dangerous and the guys up front were using their brakes a lot," he said.
On the way to the last climb toward Les Deux Alpes, Julich was still following Ullrich very closely. He didn't fully understand what was going on when the yellow jersey had a puncture that prevented him from ever coming back in the group. "What mattered to me was to bring the gap with Pantani down as much as I could," he recalled. "That is why I attacked and went up the last climb as fast as I could. I never looked back. I really focused on my race. But I can't understand what happened to Ullrich. He seemed to follow the pace. The cold, maybe. Today, anything could happen." Julich, who confessed that he knows every bend in the Alps by heart due to an impressive reconnoitering work, managed to hold on to his second place overall. But he could not be too careful. "The team worked well today and proved that it was suited for the mountains," Julich explained. "The Tour is completely crazy now. We don't know what could happen until we get to Paris. I'm almost four minutes behind Pantani. I can't make them up in the mountains, because that's his kingdom. As far as the time trial is concerned, he proved in the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) that he could surpass himself, in great occasions. So if I finished second, it would be fabulous." That's also what his coach, Bernard Quilfen, thinks. "It's going to be difficult," he said. "I'm afraid the same thing could happen again. Pantani said he was at 80 percent of his possibilities. Me, I think he wasn't far from 100 percent. Bobby will make up some time in the time trial, that's sure. But Pantani really is the strongest." Julich kept on paying the day's hero a tribute. "What he did, it's so crazy," he said. Copyright (c) 1998 L'Equipe
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Bobby Julich thinks that his chance to win lies in the Alps 