In a Munich cinema, Jan Ullrich finally admits what everyone has known for a long time

“Yes, I doped”. Four simple words express what everyone actually knew for a long time, even though he never said it. Jan Ullrich administered performance-enhancing substances. In the past, Ullrich had always refused to confess to doping. “I haven’t cheated on anyone,” was always his standard response to questions about his past.

So now the confession in a Munich film theater – including an attempt at an explanation: “I can say, from the pure heart, I really didn’t want to deceive anyone. I didn’t want to get a head start. That was a different time back then. Back then, cycling already had a system that I got into. For me at the time it was a kind of equal opportunity.”

Confessing wasn’t easy for him. “I sweat more here than on the bike,” says Ullrich with a slight grin. He looks as if a weight that was weighing tons on his shoulders had finally been lifted from him.

Jan Ullrich admits doping for the first time: “Now people can think what they want”

After the presentation of the Amazon documentary “Jan Ullrich – The Hunted” on Wednesday evening, Ullrich said he regretted not having confessed earlier. “I didn’t have the balls, that was wrong. I should have said something sooner.” Through his silence, he “contributed a lot to this,” says the fallen cycling star, referring to the years of media focus in which he was repeatedly exposed. With the “knowledge of today” he would no longer make the decisions he made back then, says Ullrich.

The fallen cycling star also explains why he didn’t confess earlier – although only in episode four of the documentary, which starts on November 28th. “There were reasons why I didn’t say something sooner,” he explains. “You’ll see them there. In the end, the rogue in Ullrich comes out again. “I’ll really let my pants down again,” he announces – and grins.

Ullrich also cites former cycling star Jörg Jaksche as a negative example of a confession. “He confessed to doping and then never set foot on the ground in Germany,” says Ullrich. Today he feels better himself. “It’s a healing effect. This all contributed to waking up. Now people can think whatever they want.”

Ullrich finally feels “arrived”

After the past few years, Ullrich finally feels like he has “arrived”: “It wasn’t that easy for me. But you have to change something in your life. I never want to experience anything like what I did five years ago in Mallorca.”

The 49-year-old also has warm words for the German media, which often harasses Ullrich: “I was left alone by the German media in recent years when I was sick, which was good. “I’m no longer the hunted one,” said Ullrich at the presentation of the documentary series – which is appropriately called “The Hunted One”.

There was also room for big emotions. Tonina Belletti, mother of the cycling star Marco Pantani, who died in 2004, was in Munich and was surprised by Ullrich with kind words and a bouquet of flowers. “I thank you for being here and I thank you all, my companions, my family, for being here. I couldn’t have done it without you.”