Jan Ullrich, Tour de France winner and five-time runner-up, admitting to doping with the help of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. 鈥淎t that time, nearly everyone was using doping substances and I used nothing that the others were not using,鈥 .听
Ullrich finished second three times to Armstrong in the Tour, in 2000, 2001 and 2003. 鈥淲e are both guilty,鈥 said Ullrich. 鈥淚 am no better than Armstrong, but no worse either. The great heroes of old are now people with failings that we鈥檝e got to come to terms with. I always knew that even Lance Armstrong would not get away with it.鈥
At the last-minute, Ullrich was barred from the 2006 Tour amid speculation that he had used illegal substances. He retired from cycling in February 2007, fighting legal charges that he doped but intimating that his entire generation was tainted in a series of public comments.听
In 2012, the Court of Arbitration for Sport sanctioned Ullrich, issuing a two-year ban backdated to August 2011, stripping him of all results since May 2005.听