(UPDATE: Bobby Julich wins Tour Benelux in August in final stage time trial.) With all eyes on Lance Armstrong this spring, fellow American Bobby Julich quietly trained for the beginning of the European pro racing season.
And as Armstrong sat at his home in Girona, Spain, nursing an illness that knocked him out of the race on Wednesday, Julich took the podium as the first American to win the week-long Paris-Nice bicycle race in its 63-year history. See race results here.
If you're like me, you always like to see an underdog win. Especially when it's someone like Julich, who struggled in the peloton for years and has suddenly bloomed as a winner at age 33.
Julich, like Armstrong, started as a triathlete who discovered that he enjoyed bicycling more than the running or swimming. He raced with the amateur US National Team in the Tour DuPont in 1991, and was joined on the team by Armstrong the following year, according to the bio on his website.
He turned pro in 1993, but didn't ride for a team until Chevrolet picked up him in 1994 for some US races. He was an Armstrong teammate again in 1995 on Motorola and began his European pro cycling career. When Motorola dropped its sponsorship of bicycling, Julich joined Cofidis in 1997 and finished third in the Tour de France in 1998 (a year beset with doping allegations in which about a third of the peloton dropped out). Later came associations with Credit Agricole and Team Telekom. Considering retirement after being let go from Telekom, Julich joined CSC, managed by former Tour de France champion Bjarne Riis and led by racer Ivan Basso. Julich finished third in last year's Paris-Nice and won an Olympic bronze in the individual time trial in Athens.
This year's 7-stage, 765-mile Paris-Nice, the so-called Race to the Sun, got off to a slippery start as heavy snow forced organizers to shorten and reroute the course early in the week.
Julich's big break came on Thursday, when he finished ahead of the peloton in a breakaway. He was in a good position when it came time to climb the steep Mont Faron on Friday, and took the lead in the general classification at the end of the day. The final two stages were routed through the area around the Mediterranean where Julich trains (he lives ini Nice part of the year), and CSC protected him from any serious attacks.
If you'd like to congratulate him, fans are leaving congratulations on Julich's website message board.
Other Americans to finish were Tom Danielson (Discovery) in 38th, Floyd Landis (Phonak) in 46th, and Guido Trenti (Quick Step) in 64th.
As a team, Armstrong's Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team finished fourth for the week to Julich's Team CSC. Jose Luis Rubiera (Spain) was Discovery's top finisher at 14th.
Meanwhile, Armstrong has started training again, reports the TDFblog.com.
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