Cycling: Bobby Julich Interview with James Raia

(Part 1)

By JAMES RAIA

Bobby Julich has ridden up and down severe mountains, negotiated harrowing, narrow roads and endured weather conditions as varied as the stamps in his passport.

Yet, as he begins the end of his long cycling career Julich has been humbled. He's a former top Tour de France competitor grateful to have a job and longing again for strong results and team satisfaction.

After speculation he might retire, Julich, a former Sacramentan, signed a 2004 contract late last November with Computer Sciences Corporation.

The Danish team, globally known as CSC, is sponsored by the Southern California-based software company whose riders won the 2003 Tour de France team title.

"I was very lucky to sign with CSC," Julich, 32, said recently on the eve of his 12th professional season. "For 2004, I would love to have a great season and make the team for both the Tour de France and the Olympics. If this is going to be my last season, I would like to do these races and be part of the team's success in each of them."

Since emerging as a promising stage race rider in 1991 (he finished fifth overall as a amateur in the Tour DuPont), Julich has built a long career as a skilled time trialist and climber. His motivation as a team rider, however, has sometimes fluctuated with his temperament.

Nonetheless, Julich has been a resilient cycling nomad. He's withstood a journey through nearly a dozen teams and myriad sponsorship woes. When his first potential pro team lost its sponsor, he rode the 1993 season without a team. He drove race to race in a rental car and accumulated a sizable credit card debt.

Julich has also had a revolving door of U.S. homes, and he's overcome his share of the cycling's most feared curses - illness and injury.

In 1996, he was diagnosed with Re-entrant Supraventricular Tachycardia (RSVT). It's an often benign heart condition in which a normal resting heart rate suddenly accelerates to as much as 250 beats per minute. Three years later, Julich crashed out of both the Tour de France and Tour of Spain within a two-month span.

Raised in Colorado, Julich first tried cycling at age 13 after watching Greg LeMond advance toward his first Tour de France title in 1996. Following several years of national amateur success, he moved to Santa Rosa in 1992 at age 20 and met his future wife, Angela.

Three years later, the Julichs moved to Sacramento for two years where Angela received her teaching credential after graduating from Sonoma State. In 1997, she was offered a job in Philadelphia and the Julichs moved again.

The same year, Julich placed 17th overall in the Tour de France. The following summer he reached his career pinnacle, placing third at the Tour behind Marco Pantani of Italy and Germany's Jan Ullrich.

But in 1999, when Lance Armstrong returned from his life-threatening cancer and was en route to his first Tour crown, Julich's success abruptly ended. He crashed badly July 11 during the race's eighth stage individual time trial in Metz and suffered a broken elbow and four fractured ribs.

He returned for the Tour of Spain in September, but withdrew again after suffering a concussion and other minor head injuries during a large pileup in stage seven. He hasn't won an individual race since.

Part 2.

© Copyright 2003, James Raia

Posted with the permission of James Raia.

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