Dutch cycling hope Thomas Dekker has signed a two-year deal with the Silence-Lotto team of Australian Cadel Evans, according to reports.

Dekker, formerly of the Rabobank team and considered one of the country’s biggest stage racing hopes, is reported by the De Telegraaf newspaper to have signed a two-year deal with the Belgian outfit.

The 24-year-old Dutchman, a former national time trial champion who won Italian stage race Tirreno-Adriatico in 2006, stepped up a level last season when he won the difficult Tour of Romandie in Switzerland.

In recent years, however, Dekker has courted controversy.

He revealed last year he had been working with Michele Ferrari, the Italian sports doctor and trainer who claimed over a decade ago that the banned blood-booster EPO (erythropoietin) was no more harmful than orange juice.

Ferrari came to global prominence in the world of cycling when seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong admitted, in 2001, that he had worked with Ferrari, although the American said he had never used doping products.

Dekker and Rabobank fell out last month following the team’s decision not to select him for the Tour de France.

At the time they said it was over fitness concerns, but Dutch media reported that Rabobank were unhappy with the rider’s negative attitude to their anti-doping programme.

Evans finished runner-up with Silence-Lotto in the past two editions of the Tour.

Photo by: CorVos Pro