Thomas Dekker at last year's Tour de Romandie (Image credit: AFP)
By Susan Westemeyer
The 2008 season was one that Thomas Dekker would probably rather forget, even if he did learn some lessons from it. Things started out well but the season ended in the middle of August, when he and Team Rabobank agreed to cancel his contract. There was no public explanation, but lots of rumours.
The 24-year-old learned some hard lessons from the whole thing. "I have good colleagues and good fans. But not everybody was good with me over the last few months," he told Cyclingnews. "This whole thing was bad for my name and image. I can do nothing about it, only train and live like the perfect pro. Then next season I have the chance to show a lot of people that they were wrong."
Things picked up again in September when he signed a two-year contract with Team Silence-Lotto. Dekker is very enthusiastic about his new team and new teammates, such as Cadel Evans. He is "a fantastic rider," and "young stars like Greg Van Avermaet, Jurgen Van den Broeck and top rider Philippe Gilbert."
