Daniel Maurer / AP

Germany's Jan Ullrich won the Tour de France in 1997 and has finished second five times, including last year.

LIEGE, Belgium - German Jan Ullrich, who is expected to be Lance Armstrong’s main rival for Tour de France victory, said this year’s race should not be seen as a battle between just the two of them.

“It’s not going to be a fight between Lance and myself, it is going to be a much more open race,” said the 1997 champion in Liege Thursday.

“The Tour has been designed for climbers with a crucial individual time trial in l’Alpe d’Huez, while the team time trial rules have changed to protect climbers from losing too much time.”

While the German said he expected Spaniard Iban Mayo to be another contender, Armstrong remained the favorite for an unprecedented sixth Tour victory.

“Lance might not be in form as early as usual this season, but he usually struggles a little bit in the third week so he probably changed his preparation to correct this,” Ullrich said.

Armstrong was struggling in a time trial at the Mont Ventoux in the Dauphine Libere and claimed he was not at peak form.

“I’m convinced Lance will do an excellent Tour. To hear him say he’s not a 100 percent is only talk,” said Ullrich, who is also trying to avoid equaling another record -- the six second-place finishes held by Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk.

Ullrich, who has had a tendency to arrive a little overweight, is leaner this year and showed he was ready by winning the Tour of Switzerland last month.

“I’m at my ideal weight at the start of the Tour, which means that in 10 days, when we reach the mountains, I might be a little bit too light,” he said with a grin.

Even though he is determined to stop Armstrong, he insisted he had far less pressure on him than the Texan did.

“I of course want to win the Tour and that’s why I came here. But to win is an obligation for him if he really wants to write that nice piece of history by winning six Tours.”

Erratic career
After an erratic career both on and off the roads, Ullrich has managed to put his often-turbulent past behind him in the last year, since the birth of his daughter.

He has opened his heart in a new book “Jan Ullrich: Ganz oder gar nicht” (Jan Ullrich: All or nothing) in which he acknowledges uncomfortable parallels between his estranged father, an alcoholic, and his own life, and gives his German fans hope that he will no longer squander his talent.

“This race will probable decide if I’m to be remembered years from now as a gifted talent who made life hard on himself but still got his act together for great victories or a sloppy genius who didn’t understand how to convert his extraordinary talent into memorable triumphs,” Ullrich wrote in the book, excerpts of which were printed in Stern magazine.

“I don’t have many chances left, perhaps two or three,” added the only German to win the race. “I’ve made mistakes and gained maturity. Overcoming my weaknesses will never be easy. But when my back is to the wall, I’m a true fighter.”

The T-Mobile team captain, who won the Tour in 1997, certainly seems hungrier and more focused than in the past.

Regarded as the rider most capable of beating Armstrong, Ullrich recently won the Tour of Switzerland by one second with a powerful performance in an individual time trial on the final day that erased a 41-second deficit and wiped out memories of some dismal efforts earlier in the spring when he was overweight and undertrained.

“It’s definitely true that in the spring I wasn’t having any success,” Ullrich said after winning the Tour de France warm-up. “But I don’t have to either when I’m concentrating entirely on the Tour. In the meantime, the form and success are there again. I’m optimistic that I’ve prepared as well as possible.”

It was his best finish in the race in Switzerland, where he now lives, since 1997 when he finished third just before winning the Tour de France.

Last year, in Switzerland he was seventh, two minutes 27 seconds behind the winner, and ended up losing to Armstrong in France by just 61 seconds.

“Even though the stages were difficult, I really noticed improvement,” Ullrich said of this year’s Swiss race. “I always knew that I would get in top shape in time but I didn’t expect to have success like this at this point.”

Ullrich’s focus is nevertheless on Armstrong, with whom he had an unforgettable duel last year that included a time-trial victory over Armstrong before he slipped on a wet road in another time trial late in the race and ended second again.

“It’s important that someone finally shows Lance that there’s someone better,” Ullrich said.

“I don’t want to be second, I want to be first,” he added at a recent news conference in Bonn. “That’s my goal and we’re all going to be pulling in the same direction. We’ll fight for every second.”

Vinokourov out
T-Mobile boss Walter Godefroot has confirmed that Ullrich is ready for the battle of his life. “Jan has never been as motivated before,” he said at the Bonn news conference.

But Ullrich’s team suffered a serious setback recently when Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov, who finished third behind Ullrich last year, suffered an shoulder injury in a crash in the Swiss race. He will miss the Tour.

Before last year’s race, Ullrich’s career appeared to be at a dead end. But his unexpected second place restored his pride and ambitions. He was later named Germany’s sportsman of the year for the stirring comeback.

Ullrich had long been famous for having weight problems, not training hard enough and failing to make the most of his exceptional potential. The East German-born rider also had to endure 14 months on the sidelines with a career-threatening knee injury and was given a doping ban for taking ecstasy during that frustrating spell.

He left Team Telekom and his new outfit, Team Coast, then had their license withdrawn for non-payment of riders’ salaries. There were fears that Ullrich would not start the 2003 Tour but a new team, Bianchi, swiftly took over and he made his way to France.

When the Tour set off last year, it was clear Ullrich was a new man. His revival sparked a cycling mania in Germany, where more than nine million people watched the race’s final stage on television.