Udo Bölts (born 10 August 1966) is a retired German racing cyclist, the brother of Hartmut Bölts. Bölts confessed publicly in 2007 to having used EPO and growth hormones in 1996 and 1997.
 Bölts (left) at the 1993 Tour de France | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 August 1966 Heltersberg, West Germany |
| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 73 kg (161 lb; 11 st 7 lb) |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Retired |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Professional teams | |
| 1989–2002 | Stuttgart–Merckx–Gonsor |
| 2003 | Gerolsteiner |
| Managerial team | |
| 2004–2007 | Gerolsteiner |
| Major wins | |
Grand Tours
| |
Biography
editBölts was born in Heltersberg and began his professional career in 1989 with Stuttgart–Merckx–Gonsor, from which Team Telekom were formed in 1991.
From 1992 to 2003, Bölts took part in 12 consecutive Tours de France, arriving in Paris on every occasion, both of which feats are German records. These records have since been surpassed by Jens Voigt. His best placing in the hardest stage race in the world was in 1994, when he was ninth. In 1996 and 1997, he was an important helper of teammates and eventual winners of the Tour, Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich. During the 1997 Tour, he was noted for the words he shouted to Ullrich when the latter was about to crack: Quäl dich, du Sau! (force yourself, you sod!).[citation needed] After Bölts had taken part in the Ironman Hawaii event with little preparation, his team chief of many years, Walter Godefroot, said: "Bölts is strong, he never breaks down".[citation needed]
Some of his victories include three German road national titles (1990, 1995 and 1999),[1] the Clásica de San Sebastián in 1996 or a stage win at the 1992 Giro d'Italia. He also is the only German rider to have won the Dauphiné Libéré, which he did in 1997, a year in which he was also fourth in the World Cycling Championships.
For his last season as a professional, Bölts moved to Gerolsteiner. After he retired in 2004, he became one of the team's directeurs sportif, and was responsible for race preparations, strategies and contacts with other teams and cyclists.[2] During the Tour de France 2006, he was an assistant commentator for German TV channel ZDF.
In the wake of the 2007 Team T-Mobile scandal Bölts confessed publicly on 23 May, having used EPO and growth hormones in preparation for the Tour the France 1996, continuing with the practise in 1997. In consequence of this Bölts resigned as the sports director of Gerolsteiner on 24 May 2007.[3]
Major results
edit
- 1987
- 6th Overall Grand Prix Guillaume Tell
- 1989
- 3rd Overall Herald Sun Tour
- 1st Stage 2
- 1990
- 1st
Road race, National Road Championships - 1st
Overall Herald Sun Tour - 2nd Grand Prix de Cannes
- 6th Grand Prix de Cholet – Pays de Loire
- 10th Overall Tour Méditerranéen
- 1991
- 3rd Overall Herald Sun Tour
- 6th Overall Nissan Classic
- 8th Overall Tour Méditerranéen
- 10th Overall Tour de Suisse
- 1992
- 1st Stage 19 Giro d'Italia
- 1st Stage 3 Tour of the Basque Country
- 4th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
- 6th GP Ouest–France
- 7th Giro di Lombardia
- 9th Coppa Bernocchi
- 1993
- 3rd Overall Herald Sun Tour
- 3rd Omloop van de Westhoek
- 6th Telekom Grand Prix (with Jens Heppner)
- 9th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
- 1994
- 1st Rund um Köln
- 1st Omloop van de Westhoek
- Herald Sun Tour
- 1st Stages 8 & 9
- 2nd Grand Prix de Wallonie
- 6th Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
- 7th Telekom Grand Prix (with Andreas Kappes)
- 8th Giro di Lombardia
- 9th Overall Tour de France
- 9th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
- 1995
- 1st Road race, National Road Championships
- 6th Telekom Grand Prix (with Jens Heppner)
- 1996
- 1st Clásica de San Sebastián
- 2nd Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León
- 1st Stage 5
- 3rd Road race, National Road Championships
- 6th Overall Grand Prix du Midi Libre
- 7th Overall Tour de Suisse
- 1st Stage 7
- 7th Telekom Grand Prix (with Christian Henn)
- 9th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
- 9th Klasika Primavera
- 10th Overall Regio-Tour
- 1997
- 1st Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
- 1st
Mountains classification
- 1st
- 1st Grand Prix of Aargau Canton
- 1st Stage 5 Euskal Bizikleta
- 3rd Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León
- 4th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
- 4th Breitling Grand Prix (with Christian Henn)
- 7th Overall Grand Prix Guillaume Tell
- 8th Rund um den Henninger-Turm
- 1998
- 1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
- 1st Breitling Grand Prix (with Christian Henn)
- 2nd Klasika Primavera
- 5th Overall Grand Prix Guillaume Tell
- 7th Road race, National Road Championships
- 8th Rund um den Henninger-Turm
- 9th Clásica de San Sebastián
- 10th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
- 10th Tre Valli Varesine
- 1999
- 1st Road race, National Road Championships
- 6th La Flèche Wallonne
- 6th Klasika Primavera
- 9th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 10th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
- 10th Overall Grand Prix du Midi Libre
- 10th Breitling Grand Prix (with Christian Henn)
- 2000
- 1st Stage 1 (TTT) Tour de Suisse
- 2nd Klasika Primavera
- 3rd Overall Deutschland Tour
- 1st Stage 3
- 6th Rund um Köln
- 2001
- 7th Rund um den Henninger-Turm
- 8th Overall Deutschland Tour
- 9th Klasika Primavera
- 2003
- 7th Overall Bayern-Rundfahrt
Grand Tour general classification results timeline
edit| Grand Tour | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Giro d'Italia
|
— | — | 31 | 33 | 18 | 46 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
 Tour de France
|
— | — | 35 | 25 | 9 | 38 | 14 | 21 | 21 | 40 | 42 | 51 | 48 | 61 |
/ Vuelta a España
|
53 | 17 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "National Championship, Road, Elite, Germany". Cycling Archives. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ "Bölts: Unavoidable Pressure To Dope In The Late 1990s". Cyclingnews.com. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
- ^ Bölts tritt zurück Archived 28 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine Süddeutsche Zeitung, 24. Mai 2007 (German)