How to Wear a Cycling Cap: Udo Bolts - *Qual dich, du Sau!

 The problem with having raced through the 1990s is that so many of the pros from that era, whose success you aspired to emulate, have since proven to have relied on enhancements for at least some of their success.

In 2007 Udo Bolts admitted to having use EPO and growth hormones while preparing for the 1996 TdF, and continued using them the following year. 

Bolts began his professional career in 1989, riding for team Stuttgart-Merckx-Gonsor, which then morphed into team Telekom in 1991. He ended his racing career in 2004 at team Gerolsteiiner. During those years he provided crucial support to the Telekom team leaders, but also was given opportunities to race for himself. As a result, Bolts' list of results is studded with podium finishes and many top 10s. The results started right off in 1989, when he won the second stage and finished 3rd overall at the Herald Sun Tour in Australia. 1990 saw Bolts win the German National Road Race Championships, and improve to the overall win at the Herald Sun Tour. in 1992 Bolts won stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia, and stage 3 of the Tour of the Basque Country. Wins escaped him in 1993, but he did finish on the podium with a 3rd overall at the Herald Sun Tour, and another 3rd at the Omloop van de Westhoek. Bolts found the winning legs again in 1994, taking 1st at the Rund um Kolm and the Omloop van de Westhoek, along with Sun Tour wins in the eighth and ninth stages. He won his second National Road Race Championship in 1995, and in 1996 won the Clasica de San Sebastian, stage five of the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, and stage seven of the Tour de Suisse. 

In 1997 bolts finished 1st overall and won the mountains classification at the Criterium de Dauphine Libere, finished 1st at the Grand Prix of Aargau Canton and another 1st on the fifth stage of the Euskal Bizikleta. In 1998 he collected 1sts at the Grand Prix de Wallonie, and the Breiling Grand Prix (while teamed with countryman Christian Henn). Bolts won a third National Road Race Championship in 1999. The following year he picked up his last two career wins - during stage one of the Tour de Suisse, and stage three of the Deutschland Tour. His best placing at the Tour de France came during 1994, when he finished 9th overall. As for the spring classics, Bolts finished 6th at La Fleche Wallone, and 9th at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, both during 1999. Significantly, this string of twelve Tours de France finishes, until surpassed by Jen Voigt, was a record for German riders.

*During the 1997 Tour de France, Bolts is reputed to have shouted at team leader, Jan Ulrich (who appeared about to crack) "Qual dich, du Sau!" Bolts' dependability during races was unquestioned; Telekom team directeur, Walter Godefroot said of him, "Bolts is strong, he never breaks down."