Jan Ullrich started cycling early. When he was ten years old, he won his first race. After Germany's reunification he went to a club in Hamburg. In 1993, when Ullrich was 19 years old, he won the World Amateur Road Race championship in Oslo, Norway. In this year Lance Armstrong won the Professional World Race championchip. The year after, he became third in the Individual Time Race championchip. After this succes he became a professional member of the German Team "Team-Telekom".