Gerdemann to skip Worlds

Tour de France stage winner Linus Gerdemann has taken himself off the German team for the upcoming World Road Championships having recently been to withdraw from the Tour of Britain suffering stomach problems.

"It wasn't an easy decision to make," Gerdemann said on his team's website, t-mobile-team.com. "I was really looking forward to racing the Worlds on home turf, but right now I feel that I am not in the right physical shape to help the team. You need to be in top form for a race like that - and I don't have that kind of form."

He did not make the decision alone, but first consulted team manager Bob Stapleton and sport director Rolf Aldag, both of whom supported his decision. "After riding the Tour de France and the Deutschland-Tour, Linus is no longer in good enough form and the stomach problems come on top of that," said Aldag. "So it is only fair now that he scratches his start and lets someone else take his place in the team."