Thomas Dekker Looks to 2011 to Regain His Life as a Cyclist
Thomas Dekker tested positive for Erythropoietin, or EPO, in December 2007. The results were only confirmed in the summer of 2009, and three days before Dekker was supposed to begin the Tour de France, he received a phone call about his results.
“That phone call turned my life upside down,” said Dekker in an interview with Daniel Benson. “I told her it wasn’t possible. I was clean then and she said that I was positive from December 2007. I knew exactly what she was talking about. I put the phone down and I called my family and my team.”
Dekker originally admitted to taking EPO once, in December of 2007, the only time he was tested positive. Now truly repentant and planning a return to professional racing, the Dutch rider has explained that he doped throughout his career, especially while riding with Team Rabobank. The Union Cycliste International banned him in July of 2009 and invalidated all of his results through 2008 and 2009. Despite the admitted doping, Dekker rode poorly in 2008 due to a lack of discipline.
“I wasn’t living for my sport anymore and I was trying to make up for it by doping. Cycling was my life when I was winning races like Tirreno, I was waking up early, living like a professional should. I was never going out, just doing the same thing always living for my bike. In 2008 that was all different. I lost my seriousness and my focus.”
The rider’s best results was 1st place overall in the Tour de Romandie in 2007. Dekker had been with Team Rabobank since he turned professional in 2005, but after well-publicized problems between the rider and the management, he left the team and entered the 2009 season with Team Omega Pharma-Lotto. He claims that he began riding clean again in 2009, and he managed a fourth-place overall in the Tour of Belgium, and 16th in the Tour of Switzerland that season before his two-year ban.
“I just wanted to ride my bike again and get to a good level. I came to Lotto and I closed the door. I suffered so much with all the rumours and the controls and the doubts so then I didn’t want to do it anymore.”
His suspension will end on July 1, 2011, just in time for the Tour de France. His first time at the Tour de France was in 2007, his third professional season, and he finished as the 6th best young rider. Rabobank did not invite Dekker back in 2008 because of the loss of his form that season, but Omega Pharma-Lotto put him on their team for the 2009 Tour, until he was banned days before the first stage.
“I have changed my life completely. I have moved from Italy to Belgium. I am working with a new trainer (Peter Pieters). I am living a tough training regime again and I have hired professional management in order to get me back in the peloton. The only thing I can do is win some races and show that I’m a good cyclist.”
With trading season underway, Dekker is in the market for a 2011 contract. The rider can be expected to be extremely competitive in his first season back and extremely insistent in his new anti-doping stance. His goal is to look back in 15 years and be able to say he did it again, and he did it right this time.
“I was young, I was stupid and I’ve seen a lot in my life. I’m 25 years old and I want to come back and have a long career. I love cycling. I just want to show that when I come back. I want the people to see that.
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