Jens Voigt and Chechu Rubiera both received abuse on the ride yesterday.
From procycling.com
Voigt abused by German fans
7/22/2004
Lance felt the abuse he received from fans was bad, but it was nothing compared to the disgraceful taunts Jens Voigt had to endure.
For CSC rider Jens Voigt the ride up the Alpe d’Huez turned into a living nightmare. Not because he was going badly, but because of all the abuse he had to take from Jan Ullrich fans shouting “Judas” at him, writes Susanne Horsdal.
On Tuesday’s stage to Villard de Lans, the German rider was ordered to work hard at the front of the Lance Armstrong/Ivan Basso group. Voigt did his job dutifully, and effectively neutralised Ullrich’s attack. That act didn’t go down well with a large group of the German spectator’s amongst the million-strong turn-out on Alpe d’Huez. In his diary on sport1.de, Voigt explains the terrible experience he had and how much it hurt him.
“Today was anything but a nice stage for me – the thorn of disappointment is sitting deep. I have nothing positive to say about the myth of Alpe d’Huez and the many enthusiastic spectators. The Jan Ullrich fans who don’t understand that I was chasing him in the service of my team captain Ivan Basso on stage 15 were shouting insults of the worst kind at me. All the way up the mountain people were booing at me and showing Judas-posters the size of bedsheets with my name on it.
“The only good thing was that people didn’t push me off the bike. Furious people were running next to me – at times you only go at 15kph. You can’t defend yourself against something like that. Today I felt like I was in a witch-hunt,” writes Voigt.
The CSC rider also uses the opportunity to refute the television reports following stage 15 in which he has apparently been accused of indirectly helping Armstrong to a sixth title and of riding against Ullrich. “But I haven’t done anything wrong. I followed orders from my boss and helped my team captain. My full loyalty lies with my team. (…) Unfortunately, Ullrich doesn’t ride in my team, therefore I can’t show him consideration. My heart was bleeding too, but what can I do? The shouts of ‘Judas’ hit me especially hard. They were tearing my heart apart. This same ‘Judas’ helped Ullrich win the Olympic gold in 2000 – back then HE was my captain,” concludes Voigt.
- In common with anyone linked to or perceived to be linked to Lance Armstrong, US Postal domestique José Luis Rubiera received a lot of abuse during his ride up Alpe d’Huez yesterday, and the popular Spaniard was extremely disappointed at the finish. “I’ve not seen anything like it,” ‘Chechu’ told AS. “I’ve never received so much abuse during my sporting career. I don’t understand it. Before, fans used to come and encourage every member of the peloton, but now it seems that things are changing.
”Perhaps fans are tired seeing so many Armstrong victories, but that doesn’t seem sufficient reason to me to dish out so much abuse. When I used to go and watch racing I had my favourites as well and used to cheer them on, but I also did the same for the rest of the peloton.”