Gerdemann offers to undergo surveillance at Tour

Linus Gerdemann (Milram) is prepared to take unprecedented steps to achieve total anti-doping transparency at the Tour de France this year. The German rider said he is willing to publish test results of all his anti-doping controls conducted during the race, but has also offered to be placed under surveillance throughout the entire event.

The 27-year-old told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) that he was willing to submit himself to the unique form of scrutiny in order to prove wrong those critics who say that doping is rampant in the peloton. Gerdemann said friends of his studying sport at university have been told by their professors that no cyclist can ride the Tour de France without doping.

“Now this kind of nonsense is being taught in the universities,” he said. “And my own friends have told me this, as if it were true.”

Gerdemann said he is willing to placed under surveillance for not only the Tour de France, but also a period prior to the race. As he visualises it, an independent person or persons would accompany him and observe his every action. He would be allowed to be alone in his hotel room, but only after the area had been searched and he himself had been subjected to a body search.

“Everything has to be 100 per cent watertight,” Gerdemann said. “Everything must be intensively planned with the anti-doping experts, so that there is a legitimate basis to counter these theories [which say riders must dope to ride the Tour]."

Gerdemann said the next step is to find an independent partner to finance the whole project – a research institute, sport school or even German television broadcasters suggested as potential backers.