Cycling Profile: Thomas Dekker - ‘The Hulk of Dirkshorn’
Thomas Dekker is a professional cyclist born in Amsterdam, Netherlands and has been a prominent rider throughout his career. He has represented his country at the Summer Olympics 2004 and also won the Dutch National Time Trial Championship. Dekker was nicknamed
as ‘The Hulk of Dirkshorn’ as he was born in a small village North of Holland, Dirkshorn.
He won the Junior National Time Trial Championships in 2002 after joining Rabobank Junior team the same year. Considering his good performance at the junior team, Thomas found a spot at the Rabobank’s continental team, Rabobank TT3. He continued the wonderful
display of his skills and dominated the Under-23 National Road Race, Under-23 National Time Trial and won stages of Ster Elekrotoer.
The 27-year-old turned professional in 2005 and joined Rabobank Cycling team as he won stages at the Criterium International and Tour de Pologne. He was truly a gifted cyclist right from the start of his career and he proved himself as a successful all rounder
early on. He became the third Dutch cyclist ever to win the Tirreno-Adriatico in 2006 after Joop Zoetemelk in 1985 and Erik Dekker in 2002. Thomas showed his climbing skills during the Tour de Romandie 2007 as he won stages and proved himself against the toughest
climbs at the Jura and Alps. He rode at his first Tour de France 2007 and finished sixth at the young rider’s classification with 35th position after the final general classifications.
Dekker continued his winning performance in 2008 as he finished third at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Vuelta a Castilla y Leon and finished fifth at the Amstel Gold Race. He finished fourth after the final general classifications at the Tour of Belgium 2009.
Thomas was looking good for the Tour de France 2009 but just few days before the start of the tour, it was revealed that Dekker’s urine tests taken during December 2007 had traces of EPO. The cyclist did not accept the accusations and protested against them
initially but he did the right thing by admitting the use of EPO during 2007 and 2008 as he mentioned that it was only a once in a lifetime mistake.
He was riding for team Silence-Lotto during 2009 when his drug tests came out to be positive and Marc Sargeant, who was the manager of the team mentioned, “I feel cheated, even if this happened before Dekker joined Silence-Lotto, but while serving with Rabobank,
it is anyway a hard blow. I have put him on the non-active list and I have instructed Charles Wegelius to come to Monaco. ”
The rider was chosen by team Silence-Lotto to ride at the Tour de France 2009 but after the incident, British cyclist Charles Wegelius replaced him. Marc Sargeant also mentioned that the tests are from December 2007 and Dekker was with team Rabobank at that
point but still it is something he was not expecting.
The Dutch cyclist was hence ban for two years, from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2011 by UCI and also the Monaco Cycling cancelled his license for two years from March 3, 2010 to July 1, 2011. It was really a big blow to his career as he was one of the most
promising cyclists and two years away from the sport was really a difficult time for him.
After his return to cycling on July 6, 2011 he finished 70th at the Grote Prijs Stad St. Niklaas as he signed Garmin-Cervelo’s test team Chipotle-Sugar Labs. Thomas teamed up with Johan Van Summeren to win the Duo Normand and claimed his first
win after the return. He is hopeful that Garmin-Cervelo will give him a contract for the coming season and he can wipe off the marks from his professional career.
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