Gerdemann still looking for a team for 2013

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Former Tour de France yellow jersey-wearer Linus Gerdemann was not offered a contract with RadioShack-Nissan for 2013 and is now uncertain of his racing future.

The German survived the merger between Leopard-Trek and RadioShack at the end of 2011 but this time around he did not make the cut of 28 riders with three new additions to the squad - Stijn Devolder (Vacansoleil-DCM), Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD), and Robert Kiserlovski (Astana).

At age 30, Gerdemann has a lot of racing left in him and the RadioShack-Nissan decision has left him stunned.

"The last two years I have dedicated myself completely for my captains at Leopard," he told Cyclingnews. "Nonetheless I could also prove that I can win myself at the Tour of Luxembourg [in 2011 - ed.], our home-race. Having this in mind I was a bit surprised when I didn't get offered a spot on the roster for 2013. I found out very late, only a couple of weeks ago."

Gerdemann's 2012 season was light on with just 63 race days, the least amount of racing he has done since his crash at Tirreno-Adriatico in 2008 which put a stop to his plans to race the Tour de France and the Beijing Olympic Games. His best result this year came at the Tour of Poland where he earned fifth place on general classification. His last race was the Vuelta a España where he earned two top-10 stage finishes before abandoning with an injury to his left shoulder as well as dizziness on stage 18.

"Now I have to check out my options, although it is pretty late," Gerdemann said. "In this short timespan I haven't found a team that I can identify with. If the program is right and the philosophy of the team suits me, I don't care if I help others win races or look for my own chances."