CALA D’OR (Spain), Jan 14: German Jan Ullrich has set his sights on a second Tour de France victory nine years after his first following the retirement of seven-times winner Lance Armstrong.

“In the nine years that have passed since I last won the tour I have gained in experience and now the team is 100 percent behind me,” Ullrich, 32, told reporters at the presentation of his T-Mobile squad on Saturday.

“This year’s course doesn’t favour me necessarily but as usual in the tour the strongest will win.”

The arrival of 12 new riders on the squad, as well as the departures of German Erik Zabel of Germany and Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, mean T-Mobile’s line-up has had a major overhaul.

Their exit will permit the squad to focus for the first time entirely on Ullrich in July, six times a podium finisher but unable to crack Amrstrong’s domination.

“We’ll be working 100 percent for Jan in the tour, there’ll be no personal ambitions,” new signing Michael Rogers of Australia, who won the world time trial championships for a third year running last October, said.

“It’ll all be much clearer now in the tour team now Vinokourov has gone although there were never problems between us,” Ullrich said

With the return of Belgian Rudy Pevenage as Ullrich’s personal advisor and the retirement of longstanding director Walter Godefroot, T-Mobile’s management has also had a large-scale shake-up.

“I want to ride in Italy in the Giro, and have good memories of that from 2001 but in the end it’ll be July that counts,” Ullrich said.—Reuters