Rumors swirling that Thomas Dekker will sign with the Garmin-Chipotle team for next year. The talented 23 year old is viewed as an eventual grand tour contender, and as a classics-ready heavy weight right now. Although he has been injured quite a bit during his career, Dekker's talent is apparent whenever he is healthy enough to compete.
This past spring, the young Dutchman finished 5th in both the Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallonne races, and a respectable 6th at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He did so with less than perfect form, as he was battling injury at the time. When fully healthy, he can dominate, as he proved in 2006 when he took overall honors in Tirreno-Adriatico.
Recently, Dekker came under fire (literally) by his Rabobank team when his blood values were shown to be irregular during the Tour de Swiss. While he was not sanctioned or punished, Rabobank decided that they didn't want him on their team any more, and granted him permission to sign with a different team. On his website, Dekker has claimed that a deal with Garmin-Chipotle is immenent.
So why Garmin? Known as one of the cleaner teams in the peloton, Dekker would eliminate many doubts about his cleanliness if he were to sign with the Garmin team. But will team director Jonathan Vaughters really accept Dekker into the Garmin family? Isn't it a huge risk for Garmin to take on a rider who was shown to have abnormal values?
If Vaughters signs Dekker, rest assured that he has done his research beforehand. There is no way that Garmin would sign a rider who is a doping risk, as a positive would certainly put heavy strain on the relationship with the new sponsor. Finally, maybe this is all a rumor created by Dekker himself to try to drum up his own publicity. If teams think Garmin is interested in him, they'll surely believe he is clean and has nothing to hide. It will be interesting to see what unfolds in the coming days.
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