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| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | |  Monday, 2 July, 2001, 10:06 GMT 11:06 UK Ullrich's good omen  Ullrich, in champion's jersey, rides to 1997 Tour glory Olympic champion and Jan Ullrich won his second German road race title on Sunday. The first time the Telekom rider won the race, in 1997, he went on to take his only victory in the Tour de France. Ullrich won the title after a 216km race into Bad Durrheim, an event that will have encouraged Telekom team bosses.
The new champion finished 10 seconds ahead of team-mate Erik Zabel, who is aiming for a record sixth consecutive green points jersey in this year's Tour. Ullrich's win means that all three of the riders who made up last year's Tour podium have won races in the fortnight before this event. Defending champion Lance Armstrong took the Tour of Switzerland. And the third-placed surprise package of the 2000 Tour, Joseba Beloki, triumphed in the Tour of Catalonia. Ullrich was runner-up in last year's Tour. He also finished second in his two other appearances in the Tour in 1996 and 1998. Italy: Bartoli loses jersey Elsewhere around Europe, a number of new national champions were also crowned ahead of the Tour start next Saturday. Italian Michele Bartoli lost his champion's jersey of 2000 to Mapei team-mate Daniele Nardello. Both riders will play key roles in the Tour for the world's richest team.
In Spain, Beloki's ONCE team celebrated a second win of the week. Jose Ivan Gutierrez beat Ibanesto's Santiago Blanco to the jersey. French team Bonjour will arrive at the Tour start with Didier Rous in the red,white and blue French tricolour jersey. Rous beat team-mate Walter Beneteau, with whom he will share a room during the Tour, into second place. Former world number one and 1998 French champion Laurent Jalabert was fifth. Dimitri Konychev is another new champion expected to start the Tour. The Russian veteran from the Italian Fassa Bortolo won that race while team-mate Raimondas Rumsas took the Lithuanian title. Favourites suffer But the big names were beaten in the other Baltic states. Latvian world champion Romans Vainsteins and former Estonian yellow jersey-holder Jan Kirsipuu both missed out to men from teams not invited to the Tour. But Kirsipuu's AG2R team-mate Ludovic Capelle was a surprise winner in Belgium, beating a host of bigger stars to the jersey. Defending champion Axel Merckx of Domo was eighth but potential Tour stars Tom Steels and Rik Verbrugghe were well off the pace. In Denmark there was a clean sweep for riders from Jalabert's Danish squad, CSC, with Jakob Pill leading home four of his team-mates. Hunt hope But the Dutch national champion will not ride the Tour after the country's major team Rabobank missed our for the first time in recent years. Sprinter Jan Koerts won the race with former champion Michael Boogerd Rabobank's best finisher in fourth. Koerts riders for the American Mercury team, which has not been invited to this year's Tour. In Britain, sprinter Jeremy Hunt beat Olympic track medallist Rob Hayles into second place in Cardiff. Hayles' Cofidis team-mate, 2000 Tour prologue winner David Millar, did not start the race. Hunt must now wait to see whether the French team Big Mat select him for his first Tour. New champions Austria: J�rgen Pauritsch (RC Bike Drive) | |
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