Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

AP Photo/Daniel Maurer

Yes, its only for charity but Der Kaiser is back on the roads. He won’t be racing anytime soon, but here is a glimpse for old times sake. He is riding his own “Jan Ullrich” brand bikes which have fat tubes in the winter and get skinner in July. Jan, send me over [...]

With all of the sound and fury signifying nothing. That is a good way to summarize Operation Puerto which come Monday will be archived. The investigation failed to turn out any solid evidence against anyone that was remotely associated with the case.
Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, Fransico Mancebo were barred from the Tour de France [...]

(pic from Yahoo News)

“I am ending my active career,” Ullrich said.
He criticized the way he had been treated by cycling officials in Germany and Switzerland and by the German media.
“I feel like a serious criminal although I have nothing to reproach myself,” he said.
Ullrich said he was still fit and had received offers from seven [...]

(Jan Ullrich bikes…discounts available?)
Jan Ullrich has scheduled a press conference for next Monday and speculation has been ripe on just what Der Kaiser will talk about. Rumors have been heavily leaning on an Ullrich retirement announcement since Ullrich has yet to get a license from any national federation.

2006 was the craziest year for drugs in cycling ever. The craziness of Operation Puerto probably eclipsed anything that happened in 1998 with the Festina Affair. Now that Ivan Basso and several others are cleared of involvement from Operation Puerto for the time being the hot news is who is signing for whom.
Jan Ullrich [...]

(pic from flickr, UPDATE: Actually this is from Graham Watson)
Ivan Basso wasted no time climbing on a new Trek and donning the Discovery Channel kit after word of his signing was released to the world last week. To say that Ivan is motivated for 2007 is an understatement. Basso is already dressed in Discovery [...]

Tuttobiciweb reports that Discovery Channel has given a contract offer to Jan Ullrich. The contract is to make Jan Ullrich team leader for the next two years. This contract offer so far seems to have no regard for the various legal issues surrounding Der Kaiser. Ullrich may be cleared of his Operation Puerto involvement [...]

Ivan Basso’ case will be argued next week on August 29th in front of CONI. It seems that there is a bit of doubt into the evidence given by the Spanish Guardia Civil related to Basso’ involvment in Operation Puerto. Despite of a possible incriminating fax that lists Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich the President [...]

(pic from Eurosport)
Jan Ullrich was shown no love by T-Mobile management. After lying about his relationship with Dr. Fuentes and the cloud surrounding Operation Puerto, T-Mobile have given the boot to Der Kaiser. Jan Ullrich is now out of a job and he is PO’d about the way in which T-Mobile informed him of the [...]

Details are coming out on the case against Ivan Basso as Gazzetta Dello Sport reports. In the case against Basso, his name is never mentioned, but it is derived from code words used between Fuentes and Labarta. During the Giro D’Italia Labarta mentions to Fuentes “You have the first and second in the overall GC”. [...]