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Erik Dekker

Erik Dekker
Tour de france 2005 10th stage mpk 07.jpg
Dekker at the 2005 Tour de france
Personal information
Full name Hendrik Dekker
Born (1970-08-21) 21 August 1970 (age 46)
Hoogeveen, Drenthe, Netherlands
Team information
Current team Rabobank
Discipline Road
Role Directeur sportif
Rider type Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
1992 Buckler
1993–1994 WordPerfect
1995 Novell
1996–2006 Rabobank
Managerial team(s)
2007– Rabobank
Major wins

Grand Tours

Tour de France
4 individual stages

Stage Races

Tirreno–Adriatico (2002)
Ronde van Nederland (1997, 2000)

Single-Day Races and Classics

Dutch Road Race Championship
(2004)
Dutch Time Trial Championship
(1996, 2000, 2002)
Amstel Gold Race (2001)
Clásica de San Sebastián (2000)
Paris–Tours (2004)

Other

UCI Road World Cup (2001)

Grand Tours

Stage Races

Single-Day Races and Classics

Other

Hendrik "Erik" Dekker (born 21 August 1970) is a retired Dutch professional road racing cyclist active from 1992 until 2006. He was a member of the Rabobank cycling team from 1996 till 2006. In 2007 he became one of Rabobank's team managers.

Dekker rode his first race at eight, and soon became successful. In 1985 he was invited to join the national selection for juniors. As an amateur, his most important results were second places at the youth world championships in Bergamo in 1987 and at the road race in the 1992 Summer Olympics. In that Olympic road race, Dekker got away at 30 km before the finish, together with Fabio Casartelli and Dainis Ozols. Dekker was outsprinted by Casartelli, but was so happy that he won a medal that he also finished with his arms in the air.

Directly after the Olympic Games, he became professional, and rode his first race a few weeks later in the Tour de l'Avenir.

His first win as a professional was a stage of the Tour of the Basque Country of 1994, the year he rode his first Tour de France. In 1997 Dekker won the Ronde van Nederland, but a large part of 1998 was lost because of injuries.

In 1999, Dekker was sanctioned for a few weeks because of a too high hemotacrit-level. This meant that he could not start in the World Road Race Championship.

The year 2000 was Dekker's best. He won three stages in the 2000 Tour de France, although neither a sprinter nor a favourite for the overall win, and was voted most combatitive cyclist. In the autumn of that year, Dekker won his first classic, the Clásica de San Sebastián.


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