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Dekker's B-sample also positive, admits to doping

Apr 12, 2009
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Mar 11, 2009
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Dekker_Tifosi said:
It was a test from december 2007, the day before christmas.

My thought are he was trying to get into shape for christmas dinner? :D

Surviving a kermis in Noord-Holland is way harder than any classic.
 
Jul 2, 2009
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well, this was laudably handled

and back to business, as usual :D

Dekker-Thomas-2.jpg


http://pages.citebite.com/w1x3c6c0u2bcp 2007' at the ripe age of 22

As a consequence of a bizarre decrease of form, Dekker didn't participate in the Tour de France last year. And just when his legs turned again as he felt they should, he broke his wrist and missed out on the World's. "It may sound odd, but these setbacks were good for me," Dekker commented. "Now, there's a cliché: I can put things into perspective now. It's so difficult to understand that your body doesn't want to go forward - this can happen once, but not over a longer period of time. In the Sachsen-Tour [in July 2006 - ed.], I wanted to put an end to my career: during the second stage, I thought of abandoning all the time."

Looking back, Dekker didn't regret not racing the French Grand Tour. "Renouncing on the Tour was the right decision," he said. "At the time, it hurt, because you know what you could have done in the Tour. But I was in no state to do anything. There was no energy in my body. I trained very hard last year, maybe a bit too much. But I'm going to do exactly the same this year, because that's not what caused it."

Dekker's training plans are largely directed by Italian preparatore Luigi Cecchini, who is also a good friend. The young Dutchman is frequently invited to dinner at Cecchini's home, along with other cyclists such as Fabian Cancellara, Tyler Hamilton and Jörg Jaksche.

"I can win here, I'm sure I can," Dekker reiterated about his possibilities at the 2007 Tirreno-Adriatico. "Look at the stage profiles, and you will not see much differences with last year. We have a great team here, and my form is excellent. So I think it's only logical that I'm the Rabobank leader for the classification. Last year, I showed what I can do, and now they trust me. I think it's okay to talk about one's ambitions - I don't like riders that never do."
 
Sep 22, 2009
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the hypocrisy

there was an anti-doping interview of Dekker, Boonen, A.Schleck, Contador, Gerdemann in feb 2008 procycling.

I'm quoting Thomas Dekker:


"With all the changes we've seen young riders can now have more of a chance of making an impact. They see riders their own age winning major races, and having competed against them at junior and U23 level, they consequenty feel they can compete at the top level too. That gives you the confidence to believe in yourself."

"We all have to understand that we have a responsibility to the sport"


"Following the Rasmussen affair, I'm constantly afraid of missing a random test. It's not easy to fill in the whereabouts forms either. When the season is in full swing I don't know which restaurant I'm going to be eating or what my plans are for the weekend. I try to keep things up to date but It's often quite hard to do."

"When there is a doping problem, it's no longer an individual matter - it involves the rider's team and perhaps even their country as well. I don't want to imagine what would happen if a Rabobank champion would get caught. It could mean the end of the team and more than 100 people losing their jobs. ..."


"From January 1, 2008, we should all draw a line under the past and make a fresh start. The last few years have been characterised by a lack of progress. With the blood passport, a new and more sever system of controls is being put in place. It's the beginning of a new phase in cycling. Down the line, when the implementation starts to have an effect, we'll be able to see where it has taken the sport. It's time to look for the future."

"We have to believe that cycling can be improved. It'll never be 100 per cent perfect, because there will always be cheats in our society, but the goal must be to reach 99 per cent."
 
Yeah, there are still a lot of riders with the Cecchini connection who ride freely
Flecha, Cancellara, Gerdemann, Cunego even young Breschel ;)

But we can't suspect them all. Imho Cecchini is only a trainer, who gives training advice and schedules.
Maybe he refers them to doctors when they ask him, but he is not the one guy who provides...

Italian researchers have never found anything when they investigated Cecchini multiple times, unlike f.ex Santuccione...
 
Mar 18, 2009
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FKLance said:
there was an anti-doping interview of Dekker, Boonen, A.Schleck, Contador, Gerdemann in feb 2008 procycling.

I'm quoting Thomas Dekker:


"With all the changes we've seen young riders can now have more of a chance of making an impact. They see riders their own age winning major races, and having competed against them at junior and U23 level, they consequenty feel they can compete at the top level too. That gives you the confidence to believe in yourself."

"We all have to understand that we have a responsibility to the sport"


"Following the Rasmussen affair, I'm constantly afraid of missing a random test. It's not easy to fill in the whereabouts forms either. When the season is in full swing I don't know which restaurant I'm going to be eating or what my plans are for the weekend. I try to keep things up to date but It's often quite hard to do."

"When there is a doping problem, it's no longer an individual matter - it involves the rider's team and perhaps even their country as well. I don't want to imagine what would happen if a Rabobank champion would get caught. It could mean the end of the team and more than 100 people losing their jobs. ..."


"From January 1, 2008, we should all draw a line under the past and make a fresh start. The last few years have been characterised by a lack of progress. With the blood passport, a new and more sever system of controls is being put in place. It's the beginning of a new phase in cycling. Down the line, when the implementation starts to have an effect, we'll be able to see where it has taken the sport. It's time to look for the future."

"We have to believe that cycling can be improved. It'll never be 100 per cent perfect, because there will always be cheats in our society, but the goal must be to reach 99 per cent."


You can dig up interviews just like that one for Kohl, and in fact for most riders who test positive.

It's amusing how most fans believe that a rider is more likely to be clean because he defends an anti-doping stance in the press :)
 
FKLance said:
...

I'm quoting Thomas Dekker:

...

"From January 1, 2008, we should all draw a line under the past and make a fresh start. The last few years have been characterised by a lack of progress. With the blood passport, a new and more sever system of controls is being put in place. It's the beginning of a new phase in cycling. Down the line, when the implementation starts to have an effect, we'll be able to see where it has taken the sport. It's time to look for the future."

...
The test that was positive was from december 2007. After that I think his performance went south if i am not mistaken. Maybe he was truthful about a new beginning on his interview.

Too little, too late
 
Mar 18, 2009
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Escarabajo said:
The test that was positive was from december 2007. After that I think his performance went south if i am not mistaken. Maybe he was truthful about a new beginning on his interview.

Too little, too late

His suspicious blood values that the UCI referred to were at the 2008 Tour de Romandie
 
Mar 18, 2009
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Glad that his situation is over...he got caught. However, I have a huge beef with him...he would not have admitted it if the B sample came back negative...why not just admit it after the A sample. For me it takes away a lot of the sincerity of his admission. See ya in a couple years.
 
issoisso said:
His suspicious blood values that the UCI referred to were at the 2008 Tour de Romandie
Correct, but that could have been just a drop in a blood indicator (Hematocrit / Hemoglobin) that flagged the UCI. That could be the reason why they went to the December 2007 numbers which could have looked suspicious in the first place. I think he DNF in the Tour of Romandie.
 
May 13, 2009
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In the press statement today, Dekker said the drug use was a one-time mistake...

They all say this! Almost every doper caught says this was the first time they tried it and..... I would love to hear one say. "I've been doping for years, and you didn't catch me until now?"
 
Sep 30, 2009
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Dekker_Tifosi said:
But we can't suspect them all. Imho Cecchini is only a trainer, who gives training advice and schedules.
Maybe he refers them to doctors when they ask him, but he is not the one guy who provides...

.


man! thanks for this clarification. I honestly had no idea that the "trainer" was in essence their coaches. I thought it was the team doc. Now...it all makes sense!!!
 
Mar 18, 2009
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gttim! said:
In the press statement today, Dekker said the drug use was a one-time mistake...

They all say this! Almost every doper caught says this was the first time they tried it and..... I would love to hear one say. "I've been doping for years, and you didn't catch me until now?"

Kohl said it. He was despised by the average fan for saying it.
 
Mar 12, 2009
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Somehow Dekker has always reminded me of Ricco, young, brash and cocky.

I see the reason now.

"One time mistake"?
Sure.

Testing positive on Christmas Eve, sure sounds like a one time mistake...:rolleyes:
 
Mar 18, 2009
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Here's a hint Thomas: if you say that about an in-season test, some people might be stupid enough to buy it, but in the pre-season, it's a very flimsy lie.

(EPO only helps either:

A. When taken immediately before a specific race

OR

B. Taken for a long period of time during the pre-season when there is no racing so that the effects remain for the entire following season and so that you don't have to take it during the season and thus don't test positive)

What Dekker is in fact saying is that he took it for the hell of it, when he wasn't racing, and didn't gain any performance advantage from it at any race.

Lies don't get more obvious than this
 
I don't know if it's as obvious as you think

December 2007, that is the time after a season with a constant hip injury, that plagued him during the year.
He couldn't train in november up till halfway november, still working on the problem.

If you miss that much of pre-season training, you are going to have a hard time in the ardennes classics. He maybe foresaw that, and thought he needed something extra to get into shape in time...

So it isn't as easy as an lie as you think, hypothetically he could be the truth....
 
Mar 18, 2009
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There's no substitute for training. The dope gives you the edge. A big edge, but an edge. If you miss pre-season training, it's going to be all about the training that you put in later, not the drugs.
 
Jun 18, 2009
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issoisso said:
Here's a hint Thomas: if you say that about an in-season test, some people might be stupid enough to buy it, but in the pre-season, it's a very flimsy lie.

(EPO only helps either:

A. When taken immediately before a specific race

OR

B. Taken for a long period of time during the pre-season when there is no racing so that the effects remain for the entire following season and so that you don't have to take it during the season and thus don't test positive)

What Dekker is in fact saying is that he took it for the hell of it, when he wasn't racing, and didn't gain any performance advantage from it at any race.

Lies don't get more obvious than this

Or C. Taken during the off season to help boost red cell numbers during repeated blood draws for subsequent transfusion during the racing season.

Either way, you point is still correct. No way a December positive was one-off.
 
Jul 2, 2009
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TRDean said:
Glad that his situation is over...he got caught. However, I have a huge beef with him...he would not have admitted it if the B sample came back negative...why not just admit it after the A sample. For me it takes away a lot of the sincerity of his admission. See ya in a couple years.

this seems to always be the case. Is it possible that the team has time from a PR position to deny the test, stand behind the rider, cover their bumpkin, and payoff the rider to go far far far away, with mouth sewn shut?

I believe every positive test follows with a BIGARSE cheque, this then follows with a STFup, Thankyou very much, and here's the door.........

1238158346_falling_penguins.gif


stupidity usually runs up the chain of command -
 
Jul 28, 2009
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franciep10 said:
I didn't know they test for dynepo, Think back to four years ago and there's no way you see this happening, he was such a promising rider

LOL what a contradiction.

Promising rider (e.g. Gerrans, Haussler, Hogerland) = automatic suspicion (rightly or wrongly).
 
Mar 19, 2009
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Dont Know if anyone...

Has mentioned..

The riders used to like to do a cycles of epo in the fall or winter, then train off a few units of blood at a time 250cc a piece, its spun in a centrifuge and the pure red cells are bagged and deep frozen... Red cells have a shelf life of 10 years (they can live this long dipped in Nitrogen!!!). One trip every 6 weeks during the winter yields LOTS of packed red cells to dope with in the spring and summer. The epo allows for more red cells to be harvested.

Having 10 big bags of red cells ready to go for the key races of course is very important... Coming into the TDF with a crit of 45% at the pre-race medical is no problem if they transfuse many bags of blood afterwards.

Basso, Ulllrich, Mancebo, Sevilla were the biggest names brought down when their blood bags were found in 2006 during a police raid orgininated by Jesus Manzano and somebody else who knew about the clinic "blowing the whistle" so to speak. Not that this still doesnt happen, just without the EPO.