Germany's only Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich turns 40 on Monday with the controversial cyclist insisting he has come to terms with his doping past.
Ullrich, who retired in 2007 having won the 1997 Tour, admitted for the first time last June to doping during his career with transfusions, using his own blood, by Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.
The German, who also won road-race gold and time-trial silver medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, said he was motivated by the desire to compete against his rivals on a level-playing field.
In February 2012, Ullrich was found guilty of a doping offence by the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) and retrospectively banned from August 2011 and all his results since May 2005 were removed.
Now Ullrich lives with his wife Sara and three sons on the shores of Lake Constance in Switzerland.
He spends his days looking after his growing family and makes a living from professional engagements, such as taking part in cycle rides with fee-paying fans.
"Overall, I feel totally happy," says Ullrich, who looks fit enough to race still.
"The life I now lead would be a holiday for many people."
But nearly seven years after retiring, Ullrich's doping offences have never been fully explained.
"I have finished with the subject," Ullrich told German radio broadcaster NDR.
"I have taken my punishment, I regret what I did and I stand behind my mistakes."
Legal troubles still hang over Ullrich, who has been taken to court in the wake of his June confession by a former team sponsor who wants three month's of salary back.
The case will be heard in Essen, Germany, next February.
And Ullrich refuses to comment on a report from the French Senate, released in July, which named him as one of the cyclists who retroactively tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO during the 1998 Tour.
"I have to live with the bad and good," he said, adding that he likes to live "in the present" and does not like to look back.
"I can live with it comfortably as I have my life back on track."
While Lance Armstrong's full doping admission rocked the cycling world in January, there has never been - and there is unlikely to ever be - a similar confession from his German rival.
