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Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke has died at the age of 34, a source close to the racer told the French news service Agence France Presse.
According to Belgian media, Vandenbroucke was found dead in his hotel room in Senegal, where he was on holiday. A preliminary diagnosis suggests Vandenbroucke suffered from a pulmonary embolism.
See velonews.com
I’m actually a bit sad about this one. That kids was a product of the doping era and he went for it. Full throttle. You name it, drugs, divorce, drunk driving, he did it. Big wins, too. The Flemish Hope. The enfant terrible of the cycling world. VBD has a posse.
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Sure he was doped to the gills…ever have a doubt jsut watch 99 LBL…Homey dropped Bartoli who was also doped and Bettini like a mafia snitch wearing cement shoes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmZZkwjbTu8
Watch him in full flight:
La Redoute 1999
Veulta 1999
Every day I ride with a smile and am still alive I am grateful for not being a doping-piece-of-shit-roadie. Beat him by 5 years and counting.
Amazing to watch him, not so amazing to be him I guess.
honestly surprised it took this long. with all the shit he was into, i figured he’d o.d. or suicide long before this.
i am always saddened to hear of shit like this. i don’t care if you ride bikes or what– being a sad, miserable person underneath a pile of pressure to succeed must be horrible. rest in peace, dewd.
It sucks, Snake… to be sure. But we all have choices to make. He made his, as you made yours, Jonny made his and I made mine.
Ask the guys at Ride Clean. They made a choice too.
I had just read that he was thinking of another comeback. My first thought was Comeback? his last result was in 99??? I thought at the time dude might be gripping
RIP
Bike punk wins. True dat
Once your a bad ass , you gotta really watch yourself . You never get that ringer again , that euphoric state , no matter what . Then you go the way of the devil .You come down off it as if it were the Lady . Or maybe X . But they dont call it suicide sunday for nothin . No doubt he was a bad ass . He did not die in vain . He had some zanax , a hooker, and a bottle . Just sayin ….
…frankie vdb was & had all the things you’ve all mentioned…
…but nobody really mentioned that vdb had a great natural talent…
…expectations got in the way…
…rip, motherfucker…you could a’ really been what you thought you were.,..
He had a choice to make. Tragedies are a series of bad decisions, or so my climber friends tell me. Implying that someone who kills him or herself is actually in the state to “make a choice” seems ignorant of mental health and the way the brain works. With the same logic, people who have a heart attack should try harder to make their heart work. Get educated, depression and addiction are tragic situations, as are heart attacks and cancer and yada yada. His brain chemistry was probably messed up, from drugs, riding too much, biology, whatever. We don’t know the circumstances let’s just acknowledge his moments of fame he has given us, take care of our communities, and stop stigmatizing mental illness. It’s as real as rain. I see it every day.
i guess i had to re-read he didn’t kill himself, immediately. anyway it sucks and i feel bad for his family. i also have respect for those of you who have made the choices to stay clean. i have always been mediocre bike racer, so my doping choices have been recreational. sorry for the rant one of my friends killed himself last year, everyone got pissed at him and it bugged me how everyone acted like his head was working right. VDB obviously had some challenges, too bad it ended like it did.
Monkey
bikepunk, Watch that first video again and pay close attention to the part where Phil talks about how every drop of beer in Belgium is going to disappear that night if Frank wins. That wasn’t much of an exaggeration. We’ve all made choices, but I’m pretty sure nobody here has had to make the choice about doping with the pressure of an entire country defining its self worth on our performance. Nobody stands up to that kind of thing like that alone, and the saddest part of this whole story is that Frank went through his whole life without the kind of support from his family and friends that would let him believe that its alright to lose.
“Tainted blood, broken body, spirit, mind –
Become dust, swept into the cobbles,
Soon to be forgotten.
All is ephemeral – fame and the famous as well.”
the guy was…was….just rippin’ the legs off those guys. hands on the tops, knees rubbin’ the top tube…just classic form. gotta love a guy that rides like that, doped or not….just fucking flat out. RIP