Thomas Dekker:a new beginning?

[miguelvazpinto]

Thomas Dekker returned to racing on July 6, 2011 after a 2 years ban. Representing team Chipotle he is now trying to achieve a place on 2012 Garmin Cervelo´s squad. Considering his past results and performances what do you think of his future from now on. At the age of 28, does he still has what is necessary to become the rider he was in the past?

Palmares [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dekker_(cyclist)]

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
1st, Points classification
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)

 

[ingsve]

I can't really comment on this forum since it would inevitably involve his past.

 

[McLovin]

A lot of those races should have an asterisk

 

[miguelvazpinto]

I just want to promote a debate around his future as professional cyclist. It is not my intention to discuss his past and I think we can do that but I respect your concern.

 

[jens_attacks]

he already has his thread,why make hundreds with few posts?

of course he will win again because he has enormous talent and he wants to be at the top again.he will ride with the garmin big team next year,he will do very well in the ardennes classics and a top 10 in le tour.
i know he crashed these days(??) so let's see if he's good to go in chrono des nations.

see,lots of opinions here:

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=14380&page=2&highlight=thomas+dekker

 

[theyoungest]

I'm willing to believe that at least some of those results were clean. Certainly the 2009 results were, when he got 3d in the Tour de Suisse time trial, behind Cancellara and Martin... which is his final result before the ban. But I'm not impressed by what he's done so far since his return. Maybe the Garmin road wasn't that suited to him, a team like Miche might have been a better choice (and I don't mean because of their blatant disregard of a doping past, but because of their race programme).

 

[miguelvazpinto]

he already has his thread,why make hundreds with few posts?

of course he will win again because he has enormous talent and he wants to be at the top again.he will ride with the garmin big team next year,he will do very well in the ardennes classics and a top 10 in le tour.
i know he crashed these days(??) so let's see if he's good to go in chrono des nations.

see,lots of opinions here:

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=14380&page=2&highlight=thomas+dekker

I´ve made a search in the forum and I couldn´t find any other thread related to his return but I could be wrong. If so, I am sorry.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

A lot of those races should have an asterisk

except all of his u23 and junior stuff, which says enough of itself. the man was and is a massive talent, like it or not

 

[Zam_Olyas]

in before mods packers and movers are on scene. I hope he have a good comeback year.

 

[Benotti69]

I just want to promote a debate around his future as professional cyclist. It is not my intention to discuss his past and I think we can do that but I respect your concern.

It would be a silly person who wants to discuss a cyclists future after serving a ban and ignoring their past.

 

[hrotha]

I'm willing to believe that at least some of those results were clean. Certainly the 2009 results were, when he got 3d in the Tour de Suisse time trial, behind Cancellara and Martin... which is his final result before the ban.

Why "certainly"?

 

[miguelvazpinto]

It would be a silly person who wants to discuss a cyclists future after serving a ban and ignoring their past.

Silly or not the thread is open. If you want you can participate but if you don´t you can comment another threads... cleverly I suggest.

 

[Captain_Cavman]

except all of his u23 and junior stuff, which says enough of itself. the man was and is a massive talent, like it or not

Why "except"?

 

[theyoungest]

Why "certainly"?

Well, not with a 100 % certainty of course, but Dekker basically said that he had an eye opening moment when Vaughters rejected him in 2008. Which is why I assume he rode clean for Lotto (and I think his blood values indicated as much).

 

[spalco]

Well, not with a 100 % certainty of course, but Dekker basically said that he had an eye opening moment when Vaughters rejected him in 2008. Which is why I assume he rode clean for Lotto (and I think his blood values indicated as much).

Um, wait, what? Vaughters opened his eyes in 2008, and a year later Dekker was banned for doping and after serving the ban, Vaughters is now suddenly ok with him?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Why "certainly"?

Because even the UCI knows he raced 100% clean in 2009.

After 2008 he got a warning about his suspicious values by Vaughters (and that's why he wasn't accepted in Garmin when the deal was almost done). That was his wake up call. He raced 2009 clean, which is obvious by his results in 2009 as well. Only during the Tour of Belgium and Tour de Suisse he showed a somewhat good level. So even there it took him 5 months to get used to racing without doping again.

It's also by comparing his clean 2009 values compared to the weird values in 2008 that the UCI begon retrotesting his samples again.

 

[theyoungest]

Um, wait, what? Vaughters opened his eyes in 2008, and a year later Dekker was banned for doping and after serving the ban, Vaughters is now suddenly ok with him?

Dekker got banned retroactively, from a sample collected in December 2007. If you'd only read the slightest bit about the Dekker case, you'd know this. He's also the first and only cyclist ever to be banned on these grounds.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Um, wait, what? Vaughters opened his eyes in 2008, and a year later Dekker was banned for doping and after serving the ban, Vaughters is now suddenly ok with him?

A year late he got caught for doping OF A SAMPLE IN 2007

You seem to forget this completely?

 

[spalco]

A year late he got caught for doping OF A SAMPLE IN 2007

You seem to forget this completely?

Yes, I did.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I remember an article in 2009 where he suggested he wasn't as good as people thought he was or something.

That already said a lot to me. I doubt he was still on the stuff in 09'. But this is cycling.

I think he is pretty talented, hopefully he can continue to rebuild his career next year.

 

[hrotha]

Because even the UCI knows he raced 100% clean in 2009.

After 2008 he got a warning about his suspicious values by Vaughters (and that's why he wasn't accepted in Garmin when the deal was almost done). That was his wake up call. He raced 2009 clean, which is obvious by his results in 2009 as well. Only during the Tour of Belgium and Tour de Suisse he showed a somewhat good level. So even there it took him 5 months to get used to racing without doping again.

It's also by comparing his clean 2009 values compared to the weird values in 2008 that the UCI begon retrotesting his samples again.

Sorry, that's many more assumptions than I'm willing to make. The UCI didn't "know" he was clean in 2009 any more than they "knew" Valverde was clean after 2004. Performance can be affected by many factors, and blood values can vary depending on how you dope. I'm sure if you compared Armstrong's 2009 blood values to his 1999 ones you'd find them to be remarkably stable and "clean."

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yes they know, go ask them themselves. His blood passport and his dope tests were perfectly normal in 2009

 

[hrotha]

Yes they know, go ask them themselves. His blood passport and his dope tests were perfectly normal in 2009

Now you're not even trying.

 

[Benotti69]

Silly or not the thread is open. If you want you can participate but if you don´t you can comment another threads... cleverly I suggest.

Is this your forum?

I'll participate in any manner i choose to do so within the forum rules. To talk about a cyclist previously banned for doping and ignore it is part of the problem of pro cycling and those who continue to ignore this side of the sport are part of the problem.

Dekker may well be riding clean and i hope he is but his results in the pro peloton if he can get into a team will speak for him.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Dekker is like Markus Fothen. Absolutely worthless without juice.