Ex-Tour champ Ullrich arrested over alleged assault at hotel

BERLIN Former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich was arrested early Friday and is in police custody for allegedly attacking an escort at a Frankfurt hotel.

Police spokesperson Carina Lerch said the retired German cyclist was arrested after police were called to the hotel. She said Ullrich was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and could be charged with “assault or attempted murder.”

“It seems Mr. Ullrich and an escort woman had a dispute and that he attacked her,” Lerch said. “She alerted the hotel staff and they called police. Mr. Ullrich is still in custody.”

A police statement said the woman needed medical treatment. Lerch said no further details could be given on her condition while police were investigating.

News agency DPA reported the 44-year-old Ullrich had been arrested the week before in Mallorca, where he lives, after an incident on the property of his neighbour, actor Til Schweiger.

On Monday, Ullrich told German tabloid Bild of personal problems.

“The separation from Sara and distance from my children, whom I have not seen since Easter and have barely spoken to, have had a great effect on me. I have done things as a result that I very much regret,” Ullrich said.

Ullrich, the only German to win the Tour de France, was dogged by doping allegations over his career and admitted to German magazine Focus in 2013 that he received blood-doping treatment from Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

“Almost everyone took performance-enhancing substances then. I took nothing that the others didn’t also take,” the 1997 Tour champion said.

Ullrich served a two-year ban for doping in 2012, five years after he retired in 2007.