Frank Vandenbroucke

Frank Vandenbroucke (6 November 1974 – 12 October 2009) was a Belgian professional road racing cyclist. After showing promise in track and field in his adolescence, Vandenbroucke took to cycle racing in the late 1980s and developed into one of the great hopes for Belgian cycling in the 1990s, with a string of victories that included Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Grand Tour stages and Omloop Het Volk. This early success dissipated however in a series of drug problems, rows with teams and suicide attempts. Despite repeated attempts to continue his career with a string of different teams from 2000 to 2008, Vandenbroucke's drug use and unpredictability eventually led to his estrangement from the cycling world. Although Vandenbroucke claimed in an interview in 2009 to have recovered his mental health, he died of a pulmonary embolism in October 2009 at the age of 34.

Background Frank Vandenbroucke was born in Mouscron and grew up in Ploegsteert, a village in the French-speaking region of Belgium (with facilities for Dutch speakers). In 1978, when he was four and cycling in the village square, he was knocked over by the driver of a rally car. His mother said her son didn't cry until doctors cut his cycling shorts. The collision led to four operations on his right knee and repeated problems later in life.

Vandenbroucke first tried athletics, joining the Entente Athlétique Hainaut. In 1986 he became a regional schoolboy champion. He took out a cycling licence with the club in 1989 and won a race at Brakel. An unnamed acquaintance told the Belgian journalist Philippe van Holle:

"It must have been when I was about 19 or 20 and went out training with a friend on the Belgian borders. As we spun along, out of nowhere this skinny blond kid was on our back wheel. He looked about 14. He was still there 15 minutes later, so we picked up speed. He just sat there, so we picked up the pace again. It was still no problem for him. I looked over my shoulder and he gave me a half-mocking, half-friendly grin. In the end, we went as hard as we could to try to get rid of him and teach the little brat a lesson, because by now he was getting a bit too cocky for our tastes. But whatever we did, he still hung on. After about an hour, we came into a village called Ploegsteert, at which point he came alongside with real arrogance and said 'OK, I'm back home now, so 'bye. By the way, I'm Frank Vandenbroucke.' Neither of us had ever met a kid like him." including the 1999 Liège–Bastogne–Liège. From 2000 he made the sports pages more for doping problems, failed comebacks, depression, marital problems and a suicide attempt. He was second again on stage 16, this time unable to match the sprint of Christophe Mengin. In 1998 he won Gent–Wevelgem, two stages and the overall competition of Paris–Nice, and two stages of the Tour de Wallonie. It would be his final season at .

In 1999 he transferred to the French team where, at only 24, he had the best year of his career. He won Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Omloop Het Volk, and stages in Paris–Nice and the Vuelta a España. His win in Liège–Bastogne–Liège was all the more impressive because he had said in television interviews prior to the race where and when he would attack, stating he would make his first move on Cote de la Redoute, and even going as far as giving the number of the house in front of which he would launch his second attack on the climb of Saint-Nicolas.

It was, however, his last year of major victories. The British magazine Procycling said:

"Three years on a contract worth 30 million Belgian francs (£460,000) was a deal beyond VDB's wildest dreams. He never suspected that having all that money in his pocket would set off a terrible downward spiral. He won Het Volk and Liège–Bastogne–Liège before sinking into a doping controversy that was never satisfactorily explained (see below) – even though VDB was cleared by the courts. The team suspended him while the allegations were investigated and relations with their star rider never recovered. When he came back, he showed well in the '99 Vuelta before, remarkably, managing to finish in the front group of the world championship despite fracturing both hands en route. Contractually obliged to stay with Cofidis, VDB had a poor 2000 season. By this point, people in cycling were talking more about VDB's nights out than his riding." It was Gaumont's confessions of drug-taking in the team that led to the so-called Cofidis scandal that included a raid by drugs police on Millar's house and the British rider's suspension for two years and his disqualification from the world time-trial championship he had won. Gaumont, Vandenbroucke said in his life story, suggested he take a drug trip by mixing Stilnoct, a sleeping aid, with alcohol. Gaumont described Vandenbroucke as a wild man of cycling. It was Gaumont, Vandenbroucke said, who introduced him to Bernard Sainz, with whom his name would be connected in alleged drugs scandals (see below). Vandenbroucke, riding for Acqua & Sapone in 2006In two seasons at the team, he managed just one minor result, ninth on the time trial of the 2006 Three Days of de Panne. Eventually, he was sacked for not staying in touch. In 2008, he signed with Mitsubishi, where he was suspended when accused by Belgian police of buying cocaine in Wielsbeke.

On 4 April 2009 he won a stage in the French race La Boucle de l'Artois, on a 15 km time trial, his first win in a UCI-race since 1999.

Vandenbroucke said in 2004: "I've never done anything to make myself popular. In fact, the opposite. Sometimes I think it's all a dream. I've thrown up a marriage, I've been on bad terms with my parents for a long time, all of which has troubled and exhausted me." He said he had disappointed sponsors, managers and directeurs sportifs, even though they continued to show confidence in him. "I had become schizophrenic", he said. Without psychiatric help, he would "have followed the same path as Pantani", the Italian rider found dead on a hotel floor. After 450,000 French francs a month at Cofidis, he earned 220,000 at Lampre in 2001 and then half that at Fasso Bortolo. They lived at Lebbeke, near Brussels.

Vandenbroucke and Pinacci had a turbulent relationship, and it was said in the media that they could not live together and they could not live apart – forming what those close to them called "a diabolical couple". Vandenbroucke's father, Jean-Jacques, said his son had tried to frighten his wife that he had committed suicide. His father said:

...it was the fifth or sixth time that she had returned to Italy. When they are together they fight, when they are apart they cry. He can't bear it when she leaves. He blames himself and takes all the guilt. And then there is his daughter. He can't bear not being able to see her. I probably shouldn't say so but, since Verona when he met Sarah, he has not been a committed rider." in Ploegsteert – membership dropped from 300 to 145 between 2005 and 2006 although 600 bought "Franky is for ever" T-shirts Supporters in the Frankyboys fan club at the café 't Parkske in Oudenaarde said Vandenbroucke had never been to see them, "although he said a couple of times that he would come but then never did." The chairman of the Frankyboys, Adelin de Meulemeester, said: "You can see him one day and he'll give you a friendly hello, then the next he won't even notice you [ziet hij je niet staan]."

In 2006 he asked his agent to ask his parents to sell his house in Nieuwkerke, near Ypres.

Vandenbroucke and his uncle, Jean-Luc, did not speak for two years after Vandenbroucke broke his contract in leaving Lotto, the team which Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke managed. In 2001 he was stopped on the E17 motorway in Belgium in a speeding car shared with Bernard Sainz, the so-called Dr. Mabuse of cycling. Sainz was jailed in 2008 for falsely practising medicine. Sainz could not produce the insurance documents the law insisted he carry which is used in sport as a blood-booster. Sainz insisted they were homeopathic products. After Sainz said he had spent the night at Vandenbroucke's house, police acquired a search warrant from a court in Termonde and searched Vandenbroucke's house with drugs specialists. Vandenbroucke was handcuffed and taken to a police station. Two and a half thousand fans signed a petition complaining about his treatment. Among them was his rival, Peter van Petegem. Vandenbroucke was banned by the Flemish cycling federation from riding in Belgium for six months.

The police said he was "very evasive" during questioning. He was found guilty in 2005 and sentenced to 200 hours of community service. He said at a news conference in Ploegsteert that he had always thought Sainz gave him homeopathic products but that he had doubts. He said Sainz had given him drops and injections. He said:

He paid Sainz 7,000 French francs for the homeopathic drops and 50,000 in fees in the first half of 1999. Sainz said:

Vandenbroucke was twice stopped by police in 2002 for driving his Porsche

In February 2007, publicity for Vandenbroucke's autobiography, Je ne suis pas Dieu [I'm Not God] said he admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs.

The publisher later denied Vandenbroucke had said it, claiming a misunderstanding. Vandenbroucke did, however, write that he lived a life of drug-taking and sometimes didn't sleep for days. He said:

In March, the Union Cycliste Internationale declared Vandenbroucke persona non grata. Vandenbroucke was suspended by Mitsubishi–Jartazi and then left.

Impersonation In August 2006, Vandenbroucke was caught in an Italian amateur race at Inverno, run by an organisation not associated with the Italian federation or Olympic committee, using a licence made out to "Francesco del Ponte" and bearing a photo of the world champion, Tom Boonen. He described himself as Swiss and living in Rome, giving the address of a beauty salon.

Vandenbroucke said riding had been "a weakness". He said: "I dropped out of the race. I have never crossed the line in amateur races and I have never wanted to falsify their races." His team-manager, Palmiro Masciarelli, said: "Frank is all alone". He no longer has his wife and he lives by himself. There is no longer a team at his side."

Vandenbroucke had turned down the Giro d'Italia, claiming problems with his knee, on which he had an operation the previous winter. His psychiatrist, Jef Brouwers, said "... the problems with his knee have affected him badly. He could no longer ride as he wanted after the operation. Nor could the doctors say what the problem was. These last few days, he has been terrible. The people that I called in Italy could no longer help him. He had thought it through and, so far as he was concerned, everything was lost. The situation of his knee has worn him down completely and his private life wasn't good either, with ups and downs." He planned to stay there 12 days with a former teammate, Fabio Polazzi. An autopsy in Senegal showed he had died of a pulmonary embolism. The circumstances remain unclear due to conflicting reports, some saying a combination of drugs was found by his bedside.

An employee at La Maison Bleue, his hotel, was quoted by Agence France-Presse: "When he came in [at 2 AM], he was drunk. He was with a Senegalese woman and he planned to stay one night. At 4 AM his companion came to ask for a mop because he had been sick. By 1 PM he had not left his room. Around 8 PM my boss called me and told me he was dead."

Three people who allegedly stole his personal possessions on the night of his death were arrested, including a woman who had spent the evening with him. On 18 November 2009 his family said it did not want further tests to determine if he was under the influence of drugs.

Major results

1992

1993 1st Seraing-Aachen-Seraing 1994 2nd Druivenkoers Overijse 2nd Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia 3rd Tour de Berne 3rd Clásica de Sabiñánigo 4th Trofeo Laigueglia 4th Cholet-Pays de la Loire 5th Grand Prix de Rennes 6th Overall Tour Méditerranéen 1st Stage 6 7th Veenendaal–Veenendaal 8th Grand Prix de Wallonie 9th Overall Route du Sud 9th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk 1995 1st Paris–Brussels 1st Cholet-Pays de Loire 1st Stage 1 Tour de Luxembourg 2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies 3rd Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia 7th Overall Critérium International 8th Clásica de San Sebastián 1996

1st Prologue, Stages 3, 6 & 8

1st Stage 5 1st GP Ouest–France 1st Scheldeprijs 1st Binche-Tournai-Binche 1st Trofeo Laigueglia Tour de Wallonie 1st Prologue, Stages 2 (ITT) & 5 2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies 4th Overall Paris–Nice 4th Overall Critérium International 5th Coppa Ugo Agostoni 7th Züri-Metzgete 1997

1st Stage 4 (ITT) 1st Rund um Köln 1st Trofeo Matteotti 2nd Overall Tour of Austria 1st Stages 2, 4 & 8 2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk 1998

1st Stages 1 (ITT) & 5

1st Stages 3 (ITT) & 6

1st Stage 4 1st Gent–Wevelgem 1st Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia 2nd La Flèche Wallonne 2nd Züri-Metzgete 2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne 2nd Grand Prix Eddy Merckx (with Nico Mattan) 3rd Boucles de l'Aulne 4th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía 6th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 1999 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège 1st Omloop Het Volk 1st Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise Vuelta a España

1st Stages 16 & 19 1st Stage 4 Vuelta a Andalucía 2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne 1st Stage 3b (ITT) 2nd Tour of Flanders 3rd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen 4th Overall Paris–Nice 1st Stage 7 5th Dwars door Vlaanderen 7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships 7th Paris–Roubaix 9th GP Ouest–France 2000 2nd Road race, National Road Championships 6th Overall Étoile de Bessèges 1st Stage 3b (TTT) 7th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía 2002 4th Overall Tour de Pologne 2003 2nd Tour of Flanders 4th Omloop Het Volk 8th Overall Tour of Belgium 9th Dwars door Vlaanderen 2004 1st Grote Prijs Marcel Kint 6th Overall Paris–Nice 6th Overall Tour of Qatar 7th La Flèche Wallonne 8th Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme 2005 1st Grote Prijs Marcel Kint 3rd Time trial, National Road Championships 2009 3rd Overall Boucle de l'Artois 1st Stage 2 (ITT)

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish