Written by: Myles McCorry
WWW.BIKEPURE.ORG

DEKKER:
At the World Championships in Varese last Autumn Thomas Dekker’s agent was trying hard to secure his rider a contract for the 2009 season. The reasons for Dekkers removal from the Rabobank squad last year are still unclear. Dekker said it was due to his non selection for the Tour de France, Rabobank said it was his ‘non compliance with their rules’. It was these misleading statements that caused suspicion, and most teams now shun suspicion so opted to keep him at a distance. Thankfully, the sport is changing – for the better and no team wants a rider with a shadow.

He was surprisingly signed by Slience-Lotto on September 27, 2008. A strange move for a team without a history of endemic doping, yet Silence-Lotto was ‘assured that his 2008 passport results to date were A1′ and a two year contract was given. Garmin-Slipstream were also interested in Dekker and thoroughly examined Dekker’s background and blood profiles but found something that made them refuse to offer him a contract so they pulled out.

Dekker was heralded as the new Dutch cycling star, a young rider with a bright future ahead of him, yet he was caught. As the Blood passport is neither open nor proven legally, the UCI have correctly twinned with a positive, conventional urine test. In a laboratory in Cologne, Germany, under the instruction of the UCI, they re-examined a urine sample from December 2007, which had initially proven clean, yet more advanced testing procedures found traces of Dynepo which was previously undetectable.

Dekker’s last race of the 2007 season was the Tour of Lombardia where he finished in the top 10. Once again, questions are raised. Why was he still using EPO in December? With the introduction of the Bio-Passport 13 days after his positive test, is it possible to surmise that constant micro dosing of EPO keeps hematological profile artificial, yet constant?

More importantly, how was a young rider of just 23, with limited life experience able to obtain and be capable of efficiently using EPO? Dekker is clearly not alone here. He will rightfully be banned from the sport, but his ‘traffickers’ the people who abused this young talent go free, free to abuse other young careers who become part of the doping system. We must target these people if our sport is to get a fresh start.

Photo by: CorVos Pro