Comeback kid
Congratulations to Bobby Julich, who became the first American to ever win Paris-Nice, an early season classic stage race. You can’t help but be excited for Bobby. He burst onto the international cycling scene in 1998, when he finished third in the Tour de France behind the defending champion Jan Ullrich and Marco Pantani, who simply destroyed the field with a virtuoisic performance in the Alps. Julich didn’t really do much of anything for the next several years. Perhaps the expectations and pressure from his finish at the 1998 Tour–he even gave Jan a run for his money–were too much of a burden for him to carry around. In a sport filled with gram-counters, any excess baggage is a liability. But he was persuaded to rejoin the pro tour as a member of Bjarne Riis’ CSC team a couple of years ago and has been racing like a new man. You’ve got to admire his determination.
