“DESCENT” – Thomas Dekker
Thomas Dekker details his descent into his doping in cycling and his climb back out. Fascinating read. And for those who think doping is only Lance Armstrong, his story should open your eyes. The book starts out dramatically on page one where he describes his hotel room with his cycling team, Rabobank. The curtains are drawn and he’s lying on the bed with a thick needle sticking out of his arm. At another point he describes Dr. Fuentes (the infamous doping doctor of Spanish Operation Puerto) who never even looks at him. Thomas is just #24. Most of his racing career was with the Dutch Rabobank team.
Dekker describes his upbringing as normal. When he got his first bike at age 11 he felt so entitled.
“Armstrong held a fascination for me, if only because of his charisma and his entourage…His flash, his showmanship. He was the gorilla who pounded his chest the loudest.”
“In the spring I spend 600€ on vitamins and fish oil. {teammates} nearly piss themselves laughing. I don’t get it. I’m making a wise investment in my physical fitness. They say ‘for that kind of money you could have ridden a whole lot faster.’”
His first major tour was the Giro. “…world of difference between the Giro and races earlier in the season. The pack is so quick it’s unreal. .. In the lesser races I have the measure of the best riders, but in the Giro those same guys leave me choking in their dust…The hints being dropped {later in the team bus and at meals} aren’t exactly subtle. ..senior teammates remarks that Ivan Basso is ‘in really good form’ speak volumes.”
“Bitterly disappointed, I go in search of explanations, and I hit upon doping as one of the main reasons the leading climbers are leaving me for dead. That experience at the Giro lays the foundation for my convictions that without resorting to banned substances, the only prizes that matter will always be out of reach.”
At Rabobank: “The managers act as if doping doesn’t exist while most the riders make their own arrangements.”
“I go in search of role models…I find them in riders around me, especially the leading riders who are pushing the pace. Allowing myself to be drawn to the wrong examples is my own fault, my own weakness…I would have killed for a big name in my own team who had the backbone to look me in the eye and tell me to keep my fucking paws off the dope.”
“I wasn’t blind. I could feel how much faster the pace was in the big races, speed that couldn’t simply be due to training hard and getting enough sleep.”
He eventually started doing what nearly everyone else was doing. The price for storing blood bags in Fuentes’ freezer is 10,000€, cash only and agent takes additional 10% of winnings.
“Doping is addictive – not the stuff itself, but the success it brings.” “My hunger for glory and my appetite for quick success win out over my fear of getting caught. If I learn anything it’s that I am still getting away with it. The notion that I am untouchable only grows stronger. And so the madness continues.”
Rasmussen is winning. There are suspicions and rumors. “But in our little Rabobank bubble there’s no talk of doping at all.”
Rasmussen in yellow in the 2007 Tour de France before he was kicked out.
Rasmussen, Theo DeRooij and Rabobank team lawyer being grilled about Rasmussen doping allegations by press during the 2007 Tour de France
“The team doctors are helping us with our dope.” In reference to team managers DeRooij, Breukink: “It seems asking no questions means never having to face the inconvenient truth.”
“I am the product of a system that expects you to clam up when the outside world asks about dope. I clam up because I don’t want to be the one to scare off Rabobank as a cycling sponsor and put dozens of people out of a job.”
Jonathan Vaughters as director of clean Garmin team
He’s convinced to begin to come clean on his doping. He meets with Jonathan Vaughters who demands to know all the details. Vaughters conditions: Dekker has to write to WADA and offer full cooperation.
Dekker racing the 2014 Pro Challenge for Garmin
“With Rabobank out of the cycling game, I no longer feel I have to keep my mouth shut to protect other people. Before I was afraid that speaking my mind might rob the support staff, the mechanics and the clean riders of their livelihood.”
