NANTES, France -- Jan Ullrich came along at the wrong time. Otherwise, he might own a big collection of Tour de France titles.

The German could end up as the greatest cyclist to win just one Tour.

Slowed by a fall Saturday during the next-to-last stage, Ullrich lost more time to Lance Armstrong and is almost certain to finish second to the American once again.

Unless something odd happens in Sunday's traditionally ceremonial final ride into the heart of Paris, Ullrich will be the runner-up in the overall standings for the fifth time.

He was second to Bjarne Riis of Denmark in 1996, and to Marco Pantani of Italy in 1998. In between, Ullrich won the 1997 Tour.

Now Ullrich is No. 2 to Armstrong for the third time, after 2000 and 2001.

Ullrich missed the 1999 and 2002 Tours because of knee injuries, and sat out part of last season because of a suspension for testing positive for amphetamines.

"For the first time since I've raced him, he kept us up at night,'' Armstrong said. "Nobody makes me more motivated than Jan Ullrich. I don't know why. But in my opinion, he's a big champion.''

Ullrich fell Saturday while negotiating a traffic circle soaked by rain. His wheels wobbled, sending him tumbling sideways across the road into a padded barrier.

He finished Saturday's 19th of 20 stages in fourth place, 11 seconds behind third-place Armstrong. That pushed Ullrich's deficit to 1 minute, 16 seconds overall.

"I didn't take any risks. I didn't go into the curve fast, there must have been a little oil on the road. When it doesn't rain, there's oil and dirt on the road,'' he told German state TV. "Unfortunately I can't change to rain tires like Formula One.''

He pushed Armstrong all the way this year, most notably stunning the American in last week's time trial. Ullrich beat his rival by more than 1½ minutes in that stage.

The next day, he cut Armstrong's overall lead to just 15 seconds on the first ride through the Pyrenees, prompting talk he finally would overcome the Texan.

"Jan Ullrich's for real, there's no doubt about that,'' Armstrong said.

Ullrich's resume is impressive. He won time trials at the 2000 Olympics and the 1999 and 2001 world championships.

Now he's come the closest to dethroning Armstrong; the American's previous four tour victories all were by margins of more than 6 minutes.

"I said at the start he was the biggest challenger, and this was indeed the case,'' Armstrong said. "He's back to his highest level.''