Recently, German rider Linus Gerdemann said that Armstrong's return may not be in the best interest for the sport's credibility. "He's right, I am older. I raced with Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Miguel Indurain and Greg Lemond of all people. I have been around a long time and I don't know who the hell Linus Gerdemann is, but I know that when I rolled up in 1992, I started winning races. And when I roll up in 2009, I am gonna be winning races. He better hope he doesn't get in a breakaway with me because I can still ride hard," said the Texan.

Gerdemann position clarification

Cyclingnews apologises to Linus Gerdemann for misrepresenting his views on Lance Armstrong's return to the peloton in a feature article on Armstrong yesterday.

Gerdemann said in a statement to Cyclingnews: "At the Team Milram press conference, I was asked whether I found Lance Armstrong's comeback good. I said that on the one hand it would surely draw more attention to cycling. On the other hand, in connection with the German media coverage, Lance Armstrong is virtually always connected to doping. I did not say anything about the riders of Lance's generation and certainly did not draw any conclusions about them."

(Additional editorial assistance by Susan Westemeyer.)

CrueTrue wrote:
Speaking of Toyota United, they are 'still' disbanding, right?

“First off, I did not chase Simeoni down,� Armstrong said. “I was simply following his wheel. That is the truth of the matter. I never bridged across to Simeoni. He was in front of me, people were attacking, he accelerated, and I stayed on the wheel. We have footage of the race that will back that up. There was never more than bike length between us. There was no gap closed. There’s a big difference between following wheels and closing a gap.�

Armstrong said he’d naturally expected the peloton to follow, and was surprised to see that the pair had opened a gap when they reached the day’s breakaway a few kilometers later.

“I was completely shocked when I turned around and there was no one on my wheel,� Armstrong said. “I was fully expecting to see the rest of the group, because I was in the [yellow] jersey. But Simeoni pulled for two minutes, and I followed his wheel. That’s racing. He really was a minor story that day. I knew T-Mobile would have to work, and that was good for us, to make your biggest adversaries work to chase down a break. It was two minutes at the biggest gap, and that meant they would have to work hard to chase us down.�

issoisso wrote:
More importantly, stating that in his recent meeting with CONI prosecutor Ettore Torri, they discussed funding to retest blood samples of previous years for CERA: "Worst possible scenario, at least the samples of the top 3 placed riders in every major race for the past two years"

Dankan wrote:
What would happen instead? Riccò is found as ultra-doped, where Bruseghin is caught at least once and Contador gets cleared. Not to ask what would happen with 2007 tests...

Dankan wrote:
well, everything that Fanini says sucks for me. Last time he talked about "all winning riders are dopers", the winner of the competition he was referring to appeared to be... Alessandro Ballan.

issoisso wrote:


The same Alessandro Ballan that was tested 8 times by AFLD's targeted testing during the Tour?