One-time Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich is set to return to his old Telekom squad, the team confirmed on Saturday.

Negotiations broke down earlier this week after Telekom director Walter Godefroot had refused to accept the return of his former deputy, Rudy Pevenage. But that problem was solved after Ullrich agreed to employ Pevenage directly.

"Telekom and Ullrich have reached agreement on a long-term contract," the team, which will call itself T-Mobile in 2004, announced.

The German daily Bild suggested Ullrich's annual salary would be in the region of 2.5 million euros (2.9 million dollars).

The 29-year-old Olympic champion's manager Wolfgang Strohband, confirmed to German sports agency SID that negotiations were at an advanced stage.

"Nothing's signed, though,” he said. “There are still some points to be sorted out."

Ullrich, who won the 1997 Tour de France with Telekom, will be bringing with him his Bianchi teammates Tobias Steinhauser and Andre Korff, his brother Stephan who serves as his mechanic and physiotherapist Birgit Krohme.

The man who presented the greatest threat to five-time champion Lance Armstrong in this year's Tour said "sporting considerations" were behind his decision to switch stables.

"With T-Mobile I'll have the ideal conditions to achieve my goals," he added.

His main goal will be to loosen Armstrong's vice-like grip on cycling's greatest prize.

He joined Telekom in 1995 but Ullrich left after a troubled 2002 season saw the five-time Tour runner-up suffer from knee troubles, a drunk driving incident and a positive drug test for the party drug Ecstacy.
Copyright AFP2003