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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Robert Julich | ||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Bobby J | ||||||||||||||
| Born | (1971-11-18)November 18, 1971 (age 53) Corpus Christi, Texas, United States of America | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft11+1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 72 kg (159 lb; 11 st 5 lb) | ||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||
| Current team | Retired | ||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Road | ||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||
| Rider type | Time-trialist/Climber | ||||||||||||||
| Amateur team | |||||||||||||||
| 1988–1991 | US National Team | ||||||||||||||
| Professional teams | |||||||||||||||
| 1992 | Spago | ||||||||||||||
| 1994 | Chevrolet | ||||||||||||||
| 1995–1996 | Motorola | ||||||||||||||
| 1997–1999 | Cofidis | ||||||||||||||
| 2000–2001 | Crédit Agricole | ||||||||||||||
| 2002–2003 | Team Telekom | ||||||||||||||
| 2004–2008 | Team CSC | ||||||||||||||
| Major wins | |||||||||||||||
Grand Tours
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Medal record
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Robert "Bobby"Julich (/ˈdʒuːlɪk/JOO-lik;[1] born November 18, 1971), popularly calledBobby Julich, is an American former professionalroad bicycle racer who last rode forTeam CSC in theUCI ProTour racing series. He got his international breakthrough when he finished 3rd overall in the1998 Tour de France, becoming only the second American to finish on the podium. He is a strongtime trialist who won a silver medal at the2004 Olympic Individual Time Trial, and combined with his high versatility he has won a number ofstage races on the international circuits including the 2005 edition ofParis–Nice. In September 2008, he announced his retirement as a professional cyclist.[2]
He served as a technical director forTeam Saxo Bank until November 2010, when it was announced that he would move toTeam Sky for the 2011 season as a race coach.[3] On October 25, 2012, Team Sky announced that Julich would part ways with the team due to his admission todoping in the past. This departure is therefore in line with Team Sky's policy (re-asserted in the wake of the USADA Reasoned Decision and subsequent UCI/Lance Armstrong fall-out) of asking all current team personnel to admit to any past doping offences.[4] After leaving Sky Julich worked as a coach forCCC Pro Team in 2014 before being announced byTeam Tinkoff–Saxo as the team's head coach (Directeur Sportif) for 2015,[5] however in August 2015 he confirmed that he would leave the team at the end of the year.[6]
Born in Texas, Julich has resided inGlenwood Springs, Colorado, since childhood, with a brief time inPhiladelphia, where he met his wife.[7] Most of his living relatives reside in the New York area. Bobby Julich got his start in cycling winning theRed Zinger Mini Classics youth bicycle race in 1985. As an amateur cyclist Bobby Julich won the 1990 Junior NationalCyclo-Cross Championship, and as a member of the US National Team he participated in the 1991Tour DuPont. At the time it was the biggest stage race in the United States, and Julich finished 5th overall in a race which included fellow American cyclist and 3-timeTour de France winnerGreg LeMond. Bobby won the award for the Best Young Rider and was heralded as the next LeMond.
After a few "false" starts as a professional, he joined theMotorola team in 1995 alongside Italian riderAndrea Peron and fellow AmericansLance Armstrong andGeorge Hincapie. In the 1996 season, Bobby Julich was diagnosed withre-entrantsupraventricular tachycardia (RSVT),[8] a heart condition which meant his heart would beat much faster than normal. Julich was treated withradiofrequency ablation and was ready for the 1996Vuelta a España late in the season, a race which showed the first glimpses of his potential in international professional cycling. There, Julich held theKing of the Mountains jersey for ten stages. Despite a strong performance he relinquished the jersey but did finish 9th overall, the highest placing ever by an American in the Vuelta up until Lance Armstrong finished 4th overall in 1998. It was this performance that made other teams in the peloton take notice of Julich.
When Motorola ended its sponsorship at the end of the 1996 season he joined the FrenchCofidis team with a few fellow Motorola teammates, including Lance Armstrong. Armstrong's cancer meant that he was not able to compete with the team, while Julich went on to participate in the1997 Tour de France. He performed well in this Tour, getting stronger as it progressed taking two top 10s in late mountain stages including one where he finished only behind the podium finishersRichard Virenque,Marco Pantani andJan Ullrich. Then in the final ITT he placed 4th to finish the Tour in 17th overall.[9]
The embattled1998 Tour de France was a breakthrough for Julich, when he took over the team leadership from ItalianFrancesco Casagrande. Following thedoping scandal of the 1998 Tour, only 96 of 189 riders completed the race, and Julich finished third on the podium with winner Pantani and runner-up Ullrich. Julich was hailed as the next American Tour de France champion and he was once more proclaimed to follow in the footsteps of Greg LeMond.[10] The1999 Tour de France saw Julich as one of the favorites for the overall win, but a crash during anindividual time trial forced him to quit the race, which was in turn won by the recovered Lance Armstrong.
For the 2000 season, Julich moved to another French teamCredit Agricole, joining compatriotJonathan Vaughters. He was part of the Credit Agricole team that won theteam time trial stage of the2001 Tour de France. After a move toTeam Telekom of Germany in 2002, Julich rode as adomestique in support of his team captain Jan Ullrich. Julich only enjoyed lacklustre results, and at the end of the 2003 season he contemplated retiring.[11]
Despite an offer below his wages at Team Telekom,[11] Bobby Julich moved to the Danish outfit Team CSC in the 2004 season, where he joined up with former Motorola teammate Andrea Peron. He once again rode as a supporting rider in the Tour de France, but with the freedom to pursue his own chances during the rest of the season. Julich immediately saw his riding and performance improve, as he won a time-trial in the April 2004 raceTour of the Basque Country, his first victory since the 1998 season. With Team CSC teammateJens Voigt, a rider Julich rode with in his time at Credit Agricole, he also won the two-man time trialLuK Challenge. Bobby Julich won a silver medal in the2004 Summer Olympics men'sindividual time trial event behind RussianViatcheslav Ekimov.
Julich's renaissance continued in 2005 with his best-ever professional season, becoming the first American to winParis–Nice. He also won theCritérium International and theEneco Tour, making Julich the8th ranked rider in theUCI ProTour, helping Team CSC become thehighest ranked team of 2005.
For the 2006 season, Julich planned to conserve energy for helping Team CSC captainIvan Basso in his winning bid for both the2006 Giro d'Italia in May and2006 Tour de France in July. Even though he did not start his season as strongly compared to 2005, he managed to finish 3rd at theTour of California in February and he won the prologue of Paris–Nice in March, results that even positively surprised Julich himself.[12] For the very first Giro d'Italia participation in his career, Julich had early aspirations of conquering the pink jersey for the leader of thegeneral classification early in the race to lessen the pressure on Basso.[12] However, Julich suffered heavily frompollen allergy throughout the race, and he did not play a major role himself, but focused on helping Ivan Basso, as Basso won the 2006 Giro. In the2006 Tour de France, Julich abandoned the race after he suffered a crash on the stage 7 individual time trial. He went into a turn too fast, slid on small pebbles, and he severely injured his wrist when falling.[13]
In May 2011,Tyler Hamilton, the winner of the men's time trial at the 2004 Summer Olympics, confessed that he had used doping products, and returned his gold medal. On August 10, 2012, Bobby Julich was upgraded from the bronze to the silver medal.
In May 2013, he joinedBMC Racing Team as a consultant.[14] In November 2014, it was announced that Julich would joinTinkoff–Saxo as head coach, reuniting with Sean Yates (former sports director ofTeam Sky) and team founder and managerBjarne Riis.[15] Julich and Yates left after Riis's firing later in 2015.
On October 25, 2012, Julich admitted to "using EPO several times from August 1996 until July 1998" and resigned from the United Kingdom-based Team Sky.[16] The team had issued a statement asking both riders and support staff to sign a document verifying that they did not use or administer performance-enhancing drugs during their careers. Julich stated that he wished to continue to be involved in the sport to some extent, and also that he would pay the consequences for his poor decisions.
Julich did his self-confession at CyclingNews.[17] His open letter told that during theTour de France of 1998 his fiancée (now wife) discovered his use from another rider's wife. She told him if it would reoccur, the relationship would be over. His name was also on the list of doping tests published by theFrench Senate on 24 July 2013 that were collected during the1998 Tour de France and found suspicious forEPO when retested in 2004.[18]
OverallTour de l'Abitibi OverallTour de l'Abitibi OverallTrofeo Karlsberg OverallTour de l'Ain OverallCritérium International
Time trial,Olympic Games OverallParis–Nice OverallCritérium International
OverallEneco Tour| Grand Tour | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 92 |
 Tour de France | — | 17 | 3 | DNF | 48 | 18 | 37 | — | 40 | 17 | DNF |
/ Vuelta a España | 9 | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | 95 | — | — | — |
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
