Jan gives up on ProTour

"I have understood that there will not be a place for me on a ProTour team," Ullrich told French daily L'Equipe in an interview published on Monday.

"But I want to ride at least one more season."

The German was suspended from racing and then eventually sacked from his T-Mobile squad after being linked by Spanish officials to the doctor at the centre of the Operation Puerto doping scandal on the eve of the Tour de France.

Ullrich revealed that the Spanish probe, which has since blocked any sporting bodies from using evidence from the case in disciplinary hearings, spoiled his plans to possibly retire after the 2006 Tour.

"I imagined winning the Tour de France this year and announcing my retirement the night of the arrival in Paris," Ullrich said. "Events upset my plans."

"So, I want to have another chance, and even with a Continental Pro team that would be able to allow me to ride a Grand Tour, like the Giro for example," the 1997 Tour de France victor added.

"I don't have any reason to be angry, but I just want to show certain people that they were wrong about me."

Ullrich, who turned 33-year-old on December 3, said he is not concerned about finding a new licence after leaving his Swiss Cycling Federation, which refused to drop charges against the rider even after the Spanish ruling blocked access to evidence from the case.

"That's not a problem. Several federations have already come to me with propositions, everything will be taken care of," Ullrich said.

In addition to the Puerto doping accusations, which he has always vehemently denied, Ullrich has now come under attack for receiving money from German television station ARD in exchange for giving the state channel exclusive interviews.

Hamburg district attorney Ruediger Bagger told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that his office was investigating fraud charges against ARD for using public funds to pay for the interviews.

Ullrich even sounded a conspiratorial note.

"Some moments, I even had the impression that I was the centre of some enormous plot in Germany," he said.

"During this entire period, I boiled. I wanted to cry out that everything that people were saying about me were only lies. The German press baited me and invented unimaginable stories."

Ullrich compared his own plight to that of seven-time Tour victor and American rival Lance Armstrong, who has been dogged by doping accusations for much of his career without any seriously sticking among his countrymen.

"Whereas Lance was considered like a hero in his country, I was presented like a criminal," Ullrich said.

The German also hit out at the ProTour for allowing Ivan Basso, equally implicated in Operation Puerto, to race with Armstrong's old Discovery Channel team while Ullrich was forced to sit on the sidelines.

"Nobody wants to take the risk to let us ride, I find this a bit hypocritical. It's as if, by getting rid of one or two pawns, everybody is going to be able to wash their hands of the whole thing!"

Ullrich added that races like the Tour of Germany, which has come out against his appearance there in 2007, would suffer without stars such as himself.

"Today, some people have short memories," the German said, insisting that without his own victory in the 1997 Tour de France there would be no Deutschland Tour.

"How will they be able to be forever deprived of riders like Basso, Ullrich and [Alexandre] Vinokourov, like the case at this year's Tour?"