Alex Zülle
Alex Zülle ( born July 5, 1968 in Wil SG, living in Dietenwil SG ) is a retired Swiss professional road bicycle racer.
Career
Zülle began his professional career in 1991. Starting in the mid 1990s, he was one of the best drivers stage of cycling. So he finished second in the Tour de France 1995. 1996 and 1997 he won the Vuelta a España. He was also world time trial champion in 1996. Zülle took over in 1996/97 also briefly twice the leadership of the cycling world rankings.
During the 1997 Tour de France Zülle signed a three year contract with the French world-class team Festina to the stars Richard Virenque, second in the Tour in 1997, and Laurent Dufaux, second in the Vuelta 1996.
In the following year Zülle denied for Festina the Giro d'Italia in 1998 and first appeared so at the time of the Tour of Italy. The Swiss started excellently with three stage wins and wore the pink jersey with short interruptions twelve stages long. On the last mountain stage of the tour he broke but then a total and lost over half an hour, so he ended up in the final standings in 14th place.
In the 1998 Tour de France he met with Virenque as one of the co-favorites, but was after a few days in the center of the so-called Festina affair, when a systematic doping practice in his team Festina was uncovered. Zülle was after initial denials, like almost all teammates in tears the consumption of prohibited means to.
Then counted Zülle at the Vuelta a España in 1998 one of the favorites at the end, he finished in the standings to eighth place.
On 1 October 1998, the Doping Commission of the Swiss Cycling Federation imposed a Zülle eight -month ban, which was later shortened to four weeks.
In 1999 Zülle returned to the Tour de France back and finished behind Lance Armstrong in second place and thus de facto abolished the Tour victory. He has been involved in the early stage of the tour in a massive crash, where he lost over six minutes in the overall standings. The stage took over a dam, the Passage du Gois, who had become slippery only passable at low water and sea water. It was only in 2012 turned out that Armstrong had won the first place illegally by doping.
After his strong Tour de France Zülle 1999 was the big favorite to win his third victory at the Vuelta a España. However, he suffered already on the first mountain stage a momentous break-in and forfeited all chance of winning. However, the Swiss could rehabilitate during the tour and won a Pyrenean mountain stage, he also finished in the final individual time trial in second place behind the eventual overall winner Jan Ullrich. Ultimately, however, he finished only 37th overall.
The next year Zülle started with great ambitions in the Tour de France in 2000 and was considered one of the favorites. But he already lost a lot of time in the team time trial and got the best of health on the 18th stage.
After the 2000 season Zülle moved surprisingly for financed by the Essenes Clothiers Günther Dahms new German cycling team Team Coast, which belonged to only the second guard of professional racing teams at this time. Despite spectacular transfers the Coast team but did not get any nomination for the Tour de France 2001.
After payment difficulties in the team Zülle Coast in early 2003 moved to the Phonak Cycling Team.
However, on its previous achievements, he has no longer able to continue. His last major success was the victory at the Tour de Suisse 2002 with a lead of 1:27 minutes on the Poland Piotr Wadecki. After the 2004 season, he announced his resignation.