Milram team captain Linus Gerdemann has once again denied allegations levelled against him by programme Sportshau on German TV channel ADR, which implied that he had significant fluctuations in his haemoglobin in the first half of 2006.
"It hurts when one gets attacked like this,” Gerdemann told the German newspaper Westfälische Nachrichten. “This uses nervous and emotional energy, that does not leave me [unaffected].” He stood by the statement that his blood samples could be retested in 50 years with new methods and they would still not bear traces of doping. There "is nothing to hide," he said.
Gerdemann was asked, "Did you dope, did you take drugs or have you ever experimented with drugs?" He simply replied, "No." He also said that he is not afraid of subsequent checks and would do everything in his power to "clear up any possible wrongdoing that was happening".
The Sportshau programme alleged that the 27-year-old’s haemoglobin levels ranged between 14.2 and 17.2 g/dl, which "were not normal." It did concede however that this could also be due to special circumstances such as illness or prolonged altitude training. Gerdemann said in "Inside the West," that he had at the time "definitely" been doing altitude training.
Of the alleged hemoglobin variability: Gerdemann said that until last week he had known nothing. "I have the same status as the spectators at the ARD," he said. "Last Thursday I received an email from the WDR [ARD’s parent company] that said that they had documents relating to my personal abnormal blood values from the year 2006; I had until Saturday at 6pm to comment on it. Then, I was half an hour from the start of the Münsterland Giro on Saturday in Ahlen and I was asked if I wanted to say something about the date.
“Data were presented to me but I had not received a copy of it. My response was that I am no physician and therefore could not comment on this,” he explained.
He claims to not know exactly what is being alleged against him. Therefore, it would be "hasty" to comment on it now, said Gerdemann, as it may add to the difficulty of the allegations. "I have worked hard over the last few years [in the fight against doping],” he said, “this is a big frustration. I'm baffled.” He now wants to switch off and go on holiday: "It is important to clear your head. "
The Milram team has so far reacted cautiously to the allegations.