Just six months of retirement seems to have mellowed Lance Armstrong. On Wednesday, on a quick visit to South Africa to promote Unite4Health, a healthcare initiative, he was spreading the love around for his former and most feared rival.
"I can't see anyone else apart from Jan Ullrich winning the Tour de France this year," said Armstrong. "I saw the pictures of him at his (T-mobile) team presentation a couple of days ago and he looks in great shape. He is the most talented rider I have ever seen and if he's as fit as he looks then I can't see anyone coming close to him, not even (Ivan) Basso. Jan has the edge in the time trials and he's hungry to win it again. I reckon that Jan will win the Tour by five minutes... okay, maybe four and a half minutes"
The relationship between Ullrich, the German who won the 1997 Tour and finished second to Armstrong in the Tour more times than he would care to recount, has not always been a pleasant one.
Armstrong has always viewed the German as his greatest threat in the Tour. In 2003, with Ullrich just 15 seconds behind him and looking strong, Armstrong fell on the climb up Luz Ardiden, snagging a bag held by a small child on the side of the road and toppling over. Iban Mayo, on Armstrong's tail, crashed with him and Ullrich just managed to avoid them. As is the etiquette in cycling, Ullrich waited for Armstrong to get back on his bike, but Tyler Hamilton, the American who had once been a teammate of Armstrong's, said that Ullrich had not wanted to wait. It kicked off an unseemly spat between the two that was eventually patched up.
"I've really grown to love Jan Ullrich," said Armstrong, "and while that may sound all soft, he was the most important figure for me in the Tour de France. We used him in a lot of ways, and I mean that with the utmost of respect. He was a scary competitor for us and all of our tactics, all of our preparation was done around how we could beat him. That was how much we feared him. It is a little odd to want to beat someone so much and then to respect them so much.
"Let me tell you what sort of a man he is. He arrived at our victory party after last year's Tour de France at about midnight. There were 600 pro-Discovery Channel people there and he wanted to come to offer his congratulations. His English isn't the greatest but he still took the microphone and said some very kind and generous things about me and the team. To have the guts and the character to do that, well, that makes him a special man."
If Armstrong has made up his mind about who is going to win the 2006 Tour, which many believe is tailor-made for Ullrich, he was less forthcoming about who of his Discovery Channel team was going to take his place as leader. The Italian Paolo Savoldelli, who won the Giro d'Italia last year and rode strongly in support of Armstrong in the Tour, is a possibility, as is Yaroslav Popovych, the young Russian who won the under-25 jersey at last year's Tour.
"I think we're going to take a broad approach to the Tour with Discovery," said Armstrong. "We might go with a Hincapie, Savoldelli and Popovych attack. The team is strong and we'll see what happens closer to the race."
It has been strongly rumoured that Hincapie, who won a stage in last year's Tour, quite fancies his chances. Ostensibly a classics rider, Hincapie may decide to prepare specifically for the Tour and opt out of the Paris-Roubaix, a race he has come close to winning in the past.