"I am convinced that this Tour will be the toughest Tour of all time," said the 49-year-old Tour de France winner from 1997 in an interview with "Bild".
Tour de France 2023: Jan Ullrich on the route
Alps, Pyrenees, Jura, Vosges, Massif Central - that's pretty tough. "I feel really sorry for the sprinters in this Tour, they will have to fight and suffer to even reach Paris. Some of them will probably drop out of the grace period," predicted Ullrich.
The Tour de France 2023 starts on Saturday and covers 3399.5 kilometres from Bilbao in Spain to Paris. With eight mountain stages and only one time trial, the Tour will be decided in the high mountains. The organisers have taken a completely different approach this year, said Jan Ullrich. "As a fan, I think that's good. For the riders, however, it will be even more exhausting than usual," he said.
The 2000 Olympic champion admitted that he used to have problems when a tough mountain stage was behind him. "I often said at the finish line: that's it, I'm not starting anymore, I'm done. But after a massage and a shower I was fine again," reported Ullrich.
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