German cycling has been on the ropes for the past year.

First it was Jan Ullrich and his links to notorious Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and Operación Puerto, revealed a day before the start of the 2006 Tour.

Then there was the avalanche of doping confessions earlier this summer from a generation of current and former pros such as Erik Zabel, Udo Bölts, Rolf Aldag, Christian Henn and Jörg Jaksche.

Linus Gerdemann and his Boy Scout image is just what crippled German cycling needs.

Gerdemann presents a modern, yet cleaner image, and he’s not shy about talking about cycling’s doping past — he says he wants to help lead it into a cleaner future.

“For sure cycling has a big problem,” Gerdemann said. “I think it’s really hard for young riders to take all the responsibility now. We want to leave the past behind.”

Gerdemann’s arrival comes a decade after Germany’s lone Tour victory with the now-disgraced Ullrich in 1997.

Whether Gerdemann ever wins the Tour remains to be seen, but the 24-year-old has already been hyped as the new German hope for the future.

“There have been a lot of good German riders and I hope to someday fight for the overall victory,” he said. “Right now I will enjoy this moment. Our team captain is Michael Rogers and we will continue working for him.”

The son of wealthy parents, Gerdemann doesn’t fit the image of an unscrupulous, win-at-any-costs rider from behind the old Iron Curtain. An expert downhill skier, Gerdemann reportedly showed up to the Team CSC training camp sporting Louis Vitton luggage.

That’s not to say he’s without ambition. When he turned pro with Team CSC in 2005, team manager Bjarne Riis tapped him as a future Tour winner. He won a stage at the 2005 Tour de Suisse to confirm his arrival.

T-Mobile stole away the young protégé in 2006 after Gerdemann broke his contract with Riis. Last year he was winless, but he quietly finished sixth at the Volta a Catalunya, seventh at the Tour de Suisse and 21st at Paris-Nice.

Gerdemann, who lives near the Swiss border to be near his girlfriend, who’s studying there, has that rare but valuable commodity of strong climbing coupled with top time-trialing abilities.

The yellow jersey-stage win double was just what the beleaguered T-Mobile team needed.

Stapleton took a risk bringing the young German to this Tour — and it paid off

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Team manager Bob Stapleton took a risk on bringing Gerdemann along with first-time Tour riders Mark Cavendish and Marcus Burghardt. That bet paid off handsomely as Gerdemann became the 12th German to wear the yellow jersey.

“We brought Linus to get some experience for the future and he’s taken full advantage of the opportunity. It’s a dream come true,” Stapleton said.

“We wanted Linus to succeed, but we couldn’t imagine the stage victory and the yellow jersey. It shows that riders can do great things in a clean way. It’s a great message for the future of cycling.”

In a sign of the times, Gerdemann has been upfront about his relationship with controversial trainer Luigi Cecchini and cut ties with the Italian in May last year.

T-Mobile officials were pleased that he took the initiative to make the decision without pressure from the team.

“He worked with Dr. Cecchini until May 2006. We heard that, and before we could call him he called us and said he wrote Cecchini an e-mail and quit working with him,” said T-Mobile sponsor liaison Christian Frommert. “He joined us in January of 2006. Then you’ve heard the thing in Spain with Operación Puerto was May 2006. He called us then.”

Whether Gerdemann can fulfill his destiny of the savoir of German cycling remains to be seen. What’s sure is that his victory Saturday will at least knock doping out of the headlines in the German papers – at least for one day.

Here are highlights from the post-race press conference:

Question: Are you a future Tour winner?

Linus Gerdemann: Today was the biggest day of my career. There are a lot of great bike riders in Germany right now. That’s sure my goal to try to become a great bike rider.

Q: Are you a climber?

LG: I do well on the climbs, it depends more on the shape. I’m more of a stage rider. If I am in good shape, I can be a good climber. When I am in really good shape, then I am a good climber and good time trialist. I will try to do well in the GC in the next years.

Q: Is it hard to enter your career at this difficult moment in cycling?

LG: For sure cycling has a big problem. I think a lot of things are going in a better way. We have to do it like that. I think it’s really hard for young riders to take all the responsibility now. The past we want to leave behind. Right now is good moment with all the all teams. Many, many teams realize that that’s not the old-school way anymore. We are not at the end of this struggle. I have to say thanks to the supporters, especially what we saw in London - that was amazing.

Q: Cycling in Germany has an image problem with confessions and doping, what do you think this victory and yellow jersey means for Germany?

LG: It’s difficult to say. It’s up to the press to see what they are writing. We have a clean and clear way with the team. This is a sign that cycling is on the right way. I think many things have changed already in cycling. The support today on the climb was just amazing from the fans. It was so impressive and it was just a dream. I want to say thanks to all the supporters. The sponsor really believes in the sport. They have so many problems in cycling, so their support is just great.

Q: You were part of a group of 15, at what point did you think you could win today?

LG: The point that I thought I could win was 300m before the finish. I had such bad cramps that I was beyond my point. I was so tired on the final climb. When I was nearing the summit, I was waiting for the 500m sign – at the Tour there isn’t a 500m sign, but I was looking for it – how long can be 500m? I was so happy to see the top. I really had to focus on the downhill. I was pedaling so hard. It was a dream. It’s unbelievable.

Q: The team has an internal testing system, have you been tested at this Tour?

LG: Yesterday we had a blood-volume test. I wasn’t so happy that because it makes it hard to breathe. We were also tested in London. We’ve had two blood-volume tests in the team just in the Tour de France. We did it also in Switzerland. It’s not always nice to do things like that when they knock on your door at 7 a.m. to give blood, but cycling has a big problem and we have to do something. We have to do things like that so that we can show that cycling is possible to do it clean. I can just say thanks to the team that they doing things like that so people can believe in us. The blood-volume test is important to show that we are on the right way and that we can go fast uphill in a clean way.