According to a report in De Telegraaf, Lampre-Merida is considering to sign Thomas Dekker after his recent Hour Record attempt.

The interest comes from sponsor Merida and has been created by Dekker's good performance in Mexico last week where he covered 52.221km and was only 270m from beating Rohan Dennis.

"We have an internatioanl team and look for a rider from the Benelux countries," Merida's Peter Cooper, Merida, told De Telegraaf . "Late last year, the name of Dekker was already on the table but the Italian part stopped it because of his three bad years at Garmin. Maybe his Hour Record attempt has changed their stance. This week we will talk about it again."

However, general manager Giuseppe Saronni has quickly refused the suggestion in an interview with Tuttobiciweb.

"We never thought about signing Thomas Dekker because our philosophy is different. I have maximum respect for Thomas who also had the courage to face a big challenge like the Hour Record attempt despite not having the backing of a professional team but the philosophy of Lampre-Merida is investing in young talent, adding new pieces to the team for the future and increase the value of the young riders."

Dekker, 30, still hasn't found a team to continue his career. After debuting in the Rabobank Continental team in 2003, he made the leap to the pro team in 2005 and soon showed his talents. At only 22 years of age, he won Tirreno-Adriatico in 2006 and the following year he won the Tour de Romandie. In 2009 he joined the Silence-Lotto team but was fired when he tested positibe for EPO. on July 1, 2009, the Uci announced that they had retested a sample from December 2007 and it came out positive for the blood booster. He was banned for two years and made his return in late 2011 with Chipotle before returning to the pro level with Garmin. He stayed there for three years but didn't achieve any major result.