Cycling News Extra for July 21, 2006

Edited by Jeff Jones, with assistance from Susan Westemeyer

T-Mobile terminates Ullrich and Sevilla's contracts

T-Mobile Team has terminated its contract with Jan Ullrich, effective July 20, the rider announced today. The team's manager Olaf Ludwig comfirmed this to sid. Oscar Sevilla has also been sacked, as a result of his involvement in the Operacion Puerto affair.

Ullrich's manager, Wolfgang Strohband, said, "The termination is groundless." If the discussions that are planned for the next week do not bring an agreement, he announced that Ullrich will be represented by Dr. Ulrich Theune, an attorney who said, "The termination will not hold up."

Ullrich showed himself hurt by the process. "The termination from T-Mobile is not acceptable to me. I'm very disappointed that they didn't inform me of this decision personally, but that the T-Mobile attorneys simply sent me a fax.

"They should be ashamed of themselves - after so many years of good work together and after everything I have done for the team, they just handle me like a fax number."