Jan Ullrich, winner of the 1997 Tour de France, has been arrested on Mallorca following what has been described as an altercation with his neighbour on the Spanish island, film director and actor Til Schweiger.
According to a report in the Spanish sports daily Marca, Ullrich was arrested by police officers at around 6pm on Friday evening after jumping over a fence into the garden of Schweiger’s property and threatening his fellow jersey.
According to witnesses there was a brawl between the pair during the incident, which happened while Schweiger was hosting a party.
While there were no reports of any injuries, Ullrich, 44, is said to have asked to see a doctor after being taken to the police station.
The 44-year-old appeared in court in the island’s capital, Palma, yesterday evening where a judge issued a restraining order warning Ullrich to keep away from Schweiger.
Ullrich retired in 2007 following a career in which besides that Tour de France victory he also won the gold medal in the road race at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and was also twice world time trial champion.n
He was runner-up five times at the Tour de France, including to Marco Pantani in 1998 and Lance Armstrong on three occasions.
Ullrich was handed a two-year ban in 2012 as a result of his past links to the Spanish doctor at the centre of the Operacion Puerto anti-doping investigation, Eufemiano Fuentes, with all results obtained since May 2005 declared void.
Last September, he was handed a 21 month suspended prison sentence and fined by a Swiss court for drink-driving and speeding.
> Suspended sentence for drink driving former Tour winner Jan Ullrich
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.