Bobby Julich

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Bobby Julich
Personal information
Full name Robert Julich
Nickname Bobby J
Date of birth November 18, 1971 (age 35)
Country Flag of United States United States
Height 1.81 m
Weight 72 kg
Team information
Current team Team CSC
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type Time-trialist
Amateur team(s)
1988-1991 US National Team
Professional team(s)
1992
1994
1995-1996
1997-1999
2000-2001
2002-2003
2004-		 Spago
Chevrolet
Motorola
Cofidis
Crédit Agricole
Telekom
Team CSC
Major wins
Critérium International (1998, 2005)
Paris-Nice (2005)
Eneco Tour of Benelux (2005)
Infobox last updated on:
January 15, 2007

Robert Julich,[1] most commonly referred to as Bobby Julich, (born on November 18, 1971, in Corpus Christi, Texas) is an American professional road bicycle racer who currently rides for Team CSC in the UCI ProTour racing series. He got his international breakthrough when he finished 3rd overall in the 1998 Tour de France race, but has since rode mainly as a supporting rider. He is a strong time trialist who won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic Individual Time Trial and combined with his high versatility he has won a number of stage races on the international circuits.

Contents

Born in Texas, Julich has resided in Glenwood Springs, Colorado since childhood with a brief time in Philadelphia, PA where he met his wife.[2] Most of his living relatives live in the New York area. As an amateur Bobby Julich won the 1990 Junior National Cyclo-Cross Championship, and as a member of the US National Team he participated in the 1991 Tour 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-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond. Bobby won the award for the Best Young Rider and was heralded as the next Greg LeMond. He was selected as an alternate for the 1992 Summer Olympics representing the United States.

After a few "false" starts as a professional, he joined the Motorola team in 1995 alongside Italian rider Andrea Peron and fellow Americans Lance Armstrong, and George Hincapie. In the 1996 season, Bobby Julich was diagnosed with re-entrant supraventricular tachycardia (RSVT),[3] a heart condition which meant his heart would beat much faster than normal. Julich was treated with radiofrequency ablation and was ready for the 1996 Vuelta a España late in the season, a race which showed the first glimpses of his potential in international professional cycling. There, Julich held the King 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 French Cofidis 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 the 1997 Tour de France. The embattled 1998 Tour de France was a breakthrough for Julich, when he took over the team leadership from Italian Francesco Casagrande. Following the doping scandal of the 1998 Tour, only 96 of 189 riders completed the race, and Bobby Julich finished third on the podium with winner Marco Pantani and runner-up Jan 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.[4] The 1999 Tour de France saw Julich as one of the favorites for the overall win, but a crash during an individual 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 team Credit Agricole, joining compatriot Jonathan Vaughters. He was part of the Credit Agricole team that won the team time trial stage of the 2001 Tour de France. After a move to Team Telekom of Germany in 2002, Julich rode as a domestique in support of his team captain Jan Ullrich. Julich only enjoyed lacklustre results, and at the end of the 2003 season he contemplated retiring.[5]

Julich riding the 2006 Tour of California, finishing 3rd overall.
Julich riding the 2006 Tour of California, finishing 3rd overall.

Despite an offer below his wages at Team Telekom,[5] Bobby Julich moved to the Danish outfit Team CSC in the 2004 season, where he joined up with former Motorola team mate 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 race Vuelta al País Vasco, his first victory since the 1998 season. With Team CSC team mate Jens Voigt, a rider Julich rode with in his time at Credit Agricole, he also won the two-man time trial LuK Challenge. Bobby Julich won a bronze medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics men's individual time trial event behind fellow American Tyler Hamilton and Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov.

Julich's renaissance continued in 2005 with his best ever professional season, becoming the first American to win Paris-Nice. He also won the Critérium International and the Eneco Tour of Benelux, making Julich the 8th ranked rider in the UCI ProTour, helping Team CSC becoming the highest ranked team of 2005.

For the 2006 season, Julich planned to conserve energy for helping Team CSC captain Ivan Basso in his winning bid for both the 2006 Giro d'Italia in May and 2006 Tour de France in July. Even though he did not start his season as strongly compared to 2005, he managed to finish 3rd at the Tour of California in February and he won the prologue of Paris-Nice in March; results that even positively surprised Julich himself.[6] For the very first Giro d'Italia participation in his career, Julich had early aspirations of conquering the maglia rosa leader's jersey early in the race to lessen the pressure on Basso.[6] However, Julich suffered heavily from pollen 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 the 2006 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.[7]

Olympic medal record
Men's Cycling
Bronze Athens 2004 Individual Time Trial
1996
1997
  • Stage 2A, 2B and Overall, Route du Sud
  • Tour de l'Ain
  • 17th Overall, Tour de France
1998
2000
2001
2002
2004
2005
2006

  1. ^ Andrew Dampf, Rogers wins time trial at cycling worlds, Associated Press, September 29, 2004
  2. ^ Bobby Julich still calls Glenwood home, Post Independent, November 19, 2005
  3. ^ Re-entrant Supraventricular Tachycardia (RSVT), at BobbyJulich.com
  4. ^ America's new LeMond, CNN/SI, July 22, 1998
  5. ^ a b Cathy Mehl, Interview with Bobby Julich, DailyPeloton.com, February 21, 2006
  6. ^ a b Shane Stokes, Bobby's guide to staying strong, CyclingNews.com, March 9, 2006
  7. ^ Bobby Julich, I missed an opportunity of a lifetime, but I'll race again, ESPN, July 10, 2006


Riders on Team CSC

Kurt Asle Arvesen | Lars Bak | Michael Blaudzun | Matti Breschel | Fabian Cancellara | Íñigo Cuesta | Matthew Goss | Juan José Haedo | Volodymyr Hustov | Allan Johansen | Bobby Julich | Kasper Klostergaard | Alexandr Kolobnev | Karsten Kroon | Marcus Ljungqvist | Anders Lund | Lars Michaelsen | Stuart O'Grady | Martin Pedersen | Luke Roberts | Carlos Sastre | Andy Schleck | Fränk Schleck | Chris Anker Sørensen | Nicki Sørensen | Christian Vandevelde | Jens Voigt |  David Zabriskie
Manager
Bjarne Riis
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../b/o/b/Bobby_Julich_0eb3.html"
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