Thomas Dekker (cyclist)
 Dekker in 2006 Deutschland Tour. |
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| Personal information | |||
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| Born | 6 September 1984 Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands |
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| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||
| Weight | 69 kg (150 lb; 10.9 st) | ||
| Team information | |||
| Discipline | Road | ||
| Role | Rider | ||
| Rider type | All-Rounder | ||
| Amateur team(s) | |||
| 2003–2004 2004 |
Rabobank TT3 Rabobank (stagiaire) |
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| Professional team(s) | |||
| 2005–2008 2009 2011 2012– |
Rabobank Silence-Lotto Chipotle Development Team Garmin-Barracuda |
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| Major wins | |||
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| Infobox last updated on 11 January 2012 |
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Thomas Dekker (born 6 September 1984) is a Dutch professional road bicycle racer for Garmin-Barracuda.[1] His career highlights include winning Tirreno-Adriatico in 2006 and Tour de Romandie in 2007. He won two Dutch National Time Trial Championships and represented his country at the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece.
A few days before the start of the 2009 Tour de France, it was announced that Dekker had tested positive for EPO in a retroactive test carried out on a urine sample taken in December 2007. Dekker initially protested his innocence but he later admitted to using EPO, claiming it was a one-time mistake.[2][3] He eventually admitted to using EPO over at least parts of the 2007 and 2008 seasons, although he declines to give exact dates.[4] Dekker was suspended for two years, from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2011.[5][6]
Dekker's career has been marked by other doping allegations. He was a client of Luigi Cecchini, an Italian doctor who was investigated in relation to doping matters, however Dekker adamantly denies that Cecchini was involved in his doping [7][8][9] In 2009 he was also questioned in the HumanPlasma doping scandal, a suspected doping ring.[10]
Contents |
[edit] Career
[edit] Early years
Though born in Amsterdam, Dekker grew up from a very young age in the small village of Dirkshorn in North Holland. He was nicknamed "The hulk from Dirkshorn" and joined the Rabobank junior team in 2002, winning the Junior National time trial championships, among other races.[11] In 2003 he joined Rabobank TT3, the continental team of Rabobank, winning two stages of Ster Elekrotoer, both the U23 National Road Race and U23 National Time Trial. He also finished third in the Men's under-23 road race of the 2003 UCI Road World Championships.
In 2004 he won the Tour de Normandie, Olympia's Tour, the Dutch National Time Trial Championships and also participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics at the age of 19, finishing 21st in the individual time trial. Later in the season he also won the GP Eddy Merckx with Koen de Kort but crashed out of the Tour de l'Avenir while he was leading the race. In September he joined the Rabobank UCI ProTeam for the rest of the 2004 season as a stagiaire.[12] He won a stage of Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt, finished second in both the U23 individual time trial and U23 road race of 2004 UCI Road World Championships and finished first in the UCI U23 Classification of 2004.
[edit] Rabobank
Dekker turned professional in 2005 with Rabobank cycling team. In his first season as a professional he GP Stad Zottegem and stages of Critérium International and Tour de Pologne. He also repeated his victory in the Dutch National Time Trial Championships and rode the Giro d'Italia.
In 2006 Dekker won the Tirreno–Adriatico stage race, making him the third Dutch cyclist to win the event, after Joop Zoetemelk (1985) and Erik Dekker (2002) and in 2007 the Tour de Romandie stage race, which featured two time trials and several difficult climbing stages in the Alps and Jura.
In 2007, Dekker debuted in the Tour de France. Although he had been dreaming of winning the young rider classification,[13] he did not win it. He eventually reached the 35th place in the overall final standings, and sixth in the young rider classification, in the Tour. Dekker finished his 2007 season with his first top ten finish in a 'Classic,' the 2007 Giro di Lombardia.
The 2008 season got off to a promising start, with Dekker coming in 3rd place overall in both the Vuelta a Castilla y León and Vuelta al País Vasco and achieving three top-ten finishes in the Ardennes classics. However, after a poor showing in the Tour de Suisse Dekker was not selected by Rabobank for its 2008 Tour de France line-up.[14]
On August 14, 2008 Dekker officially announced on his web page that he had split from Rabobank.[15] Although an early report in SportWereld said Dekker was on the verge of signing with Garmin-Chipotle,[16] team manager Jonathan Vaughters later denied this rumor.[17] Dekker later revealed in an interview and in his book Schoon Genoeg that Vaughters had been on the verge of signing him, but the deal fell through when Dekker's blood values indicated he'd been doping. According to Dekker, this was the wake-up call he needed to quit using performance-enhancing drugs.[18] On September 27, 2008 it was announced that Thomas had signed a contract with Silence-Lotto for two years.[19]
[edit] Silence-Lotto
In 2009, Dekker finished a respectable 16th in the Tour of Switzerland, with a highlight of 3rd place in the second, 39 km long, individual time trial.
On July 1, 2009, it was announced that a re-test of an out-of-competition sample taken in December 2007, while Dekker was with Rabobank, was found to contain the banned substance EPO. Silence–Lotto immediately removed him from their team for the 2009 Tour de France.[20] Once his B-sample confirmed the EPO positive, Silence-Lotto fired Dekker, who admitted doping, apologizing and calling it "a mistake".[21] The Monaco Cycling Federation, where Dekker held his racing license, announced on March 3, 2010 that Dekker has been suspended for two years, until July 1, 2011.[22] In addition, the UCI stripped Dekker of all of his results from December 24, 2007, the date of his positive.[23] According to UCI, Dekker was singled out as a result of the biological passport programme, prompting the UCI to conduct a detailed review of past doping controls.
[edit] Return with Garmin
Thomas Dekker returned to racing on July 6, 2011 in the Grote Prijs Stad St. Niklaas, where he finished 70th.[24] On August 1, he announced that he had signed with Chipotle-Sugar Labs, the development team of Garmin-Cervélo.[25] On September 18 he won his first race after his comeback. He won the Duo Normand Team Time Trial together with Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Vansummeren. Garmin's team manager Jonathan Vaughters challenged the two to beat the time he himself rode in 2001 with Jens Voigt. Dekker and Vansummeren beat the time of Vaughters and Voigt and Dekker's reaction to it was:
“Even if Jonathan gave me a difficult mission, he was and is always there to support me. He came up with the combination Dekker-Van Summeren for Duo Normand. It reminds him of the duo he was with Jens Voigt, when they won Duo Normand in 2001. He challenged me and Johan to beat the time he had set with Voigt in 2001. And we did it! How cool is that?”[26]
On 18 November 2011, Dekker was confirmed as a Garmin-Barracuda rider for the 2012 season.[1]
[edit] Palmares
- 2003
- 1st,
Netherlands U23 Road Race Championships - 1st, Netherlands U23 Time Trial Championships
- 7th. Overall, Ster Elektrotoer
- 1st, Prologue (ITT)
- 1st, Stage 2
- 1st Overall, (U23) GP Linz – Passau – Budweis
- 1st, Stage 2b
- 2nd, Stage 3
- 3rd, U23 Road Race World Championship
- 2004
- 1st, Overall, Olympia's Tour & 2 stages
- 1st, Netherlands National Time Trial Championships
- 1st, GP Eddy Merckx
- 1st, Stage 1 Tour de l'Avenir
- 1st, Overall, Tour de Normadie
- 2nd, U23 Road Race World Championship
- 2nd, U23 Time Trial World Championship (ITT)
- 2005
- 1st, Stage 2 Critérium International
- 1st, Netherlands National Time Trial Championships
- 3rd, Overall, Tour of Poland
- 1st, Stage 7b (ITT)
- GP Stad Zottegem
- 2006
- 1st, Overall, Tirreno–Adriatico
- 3rd, Stage 5
- 2007
- 1st, Trofeo Pollença
- 1st, Overall, Tour de Romandie
- 1st, Stage 5 (ITT)
- 1st, Points classification
- Stage 6, Tour de Suisse
- 1st, Overall, 3-Länder-Tour
- 1st, Stage 2
- 1st, Stage 4 (ITT)
- 2008 [all results officially disqualified by UCI]
- 3rd, Overall, Vuelta a Castilla y León
- 3rd, Overall, Vuelta al País Vasco
- 5th, Amstel Gold Race
- 5th, La Flèche Wallonne
- 6th, Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 2009 [all results officially disqualified by UCI]
- 4th, Overall, Tour of Belgium
- 2011
- 1st, Duo Normand (Together with Johan Vansummeren)
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Team Garmin-Cervélo unveils 2012 men’s Pro Team roster". Garmin-Cervélo (Boulder, Colorado: Slipstream Sports LLC). 18 November 2011. http://www.slipstreamsports.com/2011/11/18/team-garmin-cervelo-unveils-2012-mens-pro-team-roster. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
- ^ http://www.monstersandcritics.com/sport/othersport/article_1487406.php/Dekker_protests_his_innocence_L_Equipe_hints_at_more_doping
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dekkers-counter-analysis-positive-for-epo
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/thomas-dekker-a-dopers-desire-for-redemption
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/thomas-dekker-to-return-in-sint-niklaas
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dekker-gets-two-year-suspension-for-epo-use
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dekker-pressured-to-break-with-cecchini
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dekker-chooses-cecchini
- ^ Thomas Dekker, Schoon genoeg, Chapter 7.
- ^ http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/2523/Boogerd-and-Dekker-questioned-about-HumanPlasma-doping-scandal.aspx
- ^ http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2002/aug02/aug22news
- ^ http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/sep04/sep07news
- ^ http://www.tdmagazine.nl/index.php?menu_id=21&nieuws_id=257 (Dutch)
- ^ http://tour2008.nos.nl/nieuws/artikel/ID/tcm:45-389377/title/thomas-dekker-niet-naar-de-tour (Dutch)
- ^ http://velonews.competitor.com/2008/08/road/rabobanks-dekker-looking-for-a-new-job_81735
- ^ http://www.sportwereld.be/Article/Detail.aspx?articleid=GL1V9ULQ
- ^ http://www.velonews.com/article/81735/rabobank-s-dekker-looking-for-a-new-job
- ^ [1] Dekker Says Vaughters Gave Him a Wake Up Call
- ^ Dekker signs two-year deal with Silence-Lotto
- ^ http://www.nu.nl/algemeen/2033543/dopingzondaar-dekker-niet-naar-tour.html (Dutch)
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dekkers-counter-analysis-positive-for-epo
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dekker-gets-two-year-suspension-for-epo-use
- ^ Sanctions, Period of Ineligibily, Disqualification, UCI, 21 May 2010
- ^ http://www.rtvnh.nl/sport/59521/Thomas+Dekker+heeft+kriebels+bij+rentree/
- ^ http://www.seginternational.com/cycling/page=site.news_article/id=850/thomas_dekker_naar_chipotle_development_team.html
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dekker-scores-first-win-since-comeback Dekker scores first win since comeback
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Thomas Dekker (cyclist) |
- Thomas Dekker (cyclist) profile at Cycling Archives
- Palmares at Cycling Base (French)
| Sporting positions | ||
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| Preceded by |
Dutch National Time Trial Champion 2005 |
Succeeded by Stef Clement |
