Jul 14, 2007
Linus Gerdemann the New German Sensation
Just when German cycling looked to be cooked along comes a new sensation to light up the sport for the Bavarians. With Jorge Jascke hogging German TV, talking about how he made his small fortune by doping while lots of great actions goes by unnoticed. The German government wants to remove funding for the World Championship in Stuttgart. All of the German’s want to kick cycling while it is down except of course the fans. German TV watchers complained about Jascke’s presence in the commentary box and are still tuning in, as well they should now that Linus Gerdemann had his coming out party today.
The young German with a baby face that looks more appropriate as a member of a boy band than a cycling team ripped up the first day in the mountains. Gerdy was able to get into a substantial breakaway group which included some heavy hitters such as Inigo Landaluze, Egoi Martinez, Fabian Wegmann and Paolo Salvodelli. This was not a group to give too much time to on the first mountain stage. Gerdemann showed surprising form in the mountains by eagarly attacking the group he was in when the roads got steeper. He was content to carry on alone and successfully held off second place Landaluze in the final 14km which were mostly downhill. Germany has a new star as Gerdemann showed panache in his win. The key now is how long will Gerdemann hold onto the Yellow Jersey? Will he be T-Mobile’s number one leader even when Mick Rogers was the team’s designated man? It will be interesting to see if Gerdemann recovers enough from today’s effort as stage 8 promises to be much tougher than today.
Meanwhile the Cycling Mummy known as Alexandre Vinokourov and his sidekick ol’ Creaky Coccyx Kloden survived their first day in the mountains. Vino must be repeating the mantra “Pain is temporary, glory is forever” over and over in his head. Vino hung on to the select group of contenders which included pretty much anyone who is considered to be a Tour de France contender for 2007. Everyone stayed tight together giving nothing away. The group did set a tough pace that all but the non climbers could follow, but the true tests will come in the next couple of days as someone or a few folks will shake out the “contenders from the pretenders”. As for Vino and Klodi they are where they want to be minus a bunch of scrapes, fractures and bruises.