God is Dead: The Rise and Fall of Frank Vandenbroucke, Cycling's Great Wasted Talent

by Andy McGrath

The remarkable untold story of the mercurial cycling prodigy Frank Vandenbroucke, written by William Hill award-winning author Andy McGrath.

They called him God. For his grace on a bicycle, for his divine talent, for his heavenly looks. Frank Vandenbroucke had it all, and in the late Nineties he raced with dazzling speed and lived even faster.

The Belgian won several of cycling’s most illustrious races, including Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Nice and Ghent-Wevelgem. He was a mix of poise and panache who enthralled a generation of cycling fans. Off the bike, he only had one enemy - himself. Vandenbroucke dabbled in nocturnal party sessions mixing sleeping pills and alcohol and regularly fell out with team managers. By 1999 his team had suspended him and this proved to be the start of a long, eventful fall from grace. Depression, a drug ban, addiction, car crashes, divorce and countless court appearances subsumed his life. He threatened his wife with a gun. He tried to commit suicide twice. And when police found performance-enhancing drugs at his house, Vandenbroucke said they were for his dog.

It seemed he had finally learned from his mistakes. Then, on 12 October 2009, aged just 34, Vandenbroucke was found dead in a hotel room in Senegal.

Guided by exclusive contributions from his family, friends and team-mates, William Hill award-winning author Andy McGrath lays bare Vandenbroucke’s chaotic, complicated life and times. God is Dead is the remarkable biography of this mercurial cycling prodigy.

Genres: Cycling, Nonfiction, Sports, Biography, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

Published June 11, 2020

Reviews

[Neil Blanchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

TL;DR - think “Extreme Ownership” but the complete and total opposite.

This was as fascinating as I thought it would be when I first heard the story of Frank Vanderbroucke. To give a short synopsis, VDB was raised on cycling, quickly became a prodigy, and then did everything in his power to throw it all away. It begs a human question that I love: “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but forfeit his soul?” What might be more fascinating that Frank’s story is the reaction of those that surrounded him. Nobody can seem to accept what happened to him and what caused his downfall. Many interviewed in the book casually dismiss his drug use, manipulation, infidelity, childishness, and litany of other behaviors that were attributed to VDB. Behind all of his insanity are notes of fatherlessness, relativity, insecurity, and total moral confusion. A fascinating read into what humans are capable of.

[Doctor Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank Vandenbroucke was a young cycling phenom. Pro cycling loves its young phenoms, maybe a little too much.

Some of them flame out, and others become greats. Vandenbroucke flamed out early, all of his major victories coming before he reached 25 years old.

Vandenbroucke was one of the Belgian cyclists anointed the title of “the next Eddy Merckx.” That’s a lot to live up to, probably impossible. Merckx is the (almost) undisputed greatest cyclist of all time, a winner of every top level race, including the grand tours of France, Italy, and Spain and the five one day classic “Monuments.”

That’s a lot to live up to if you’re going to be “the next Eddy Merckx.” In the end, Vandenbroucke won only one of those races, the Monument, Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 1999 (although he did win the sprint or points classification of the 1999 Tour of Spain as well).

He hit the pro cycling scene at absolutely the wrong time, in the 1990s, when EPO took over the peloton. It wasn’t that there weren’t other performance enhancing drugs — testosterone, HGH, amphetamines, etc. — but EPO was the miracle drug for cyclists. It enhances the oxygen-carrying capacity of your blood. That’s magic to a racing cyclist. If you weren’t using it, you weren’t competitive, much less winning.

Vandenbroucke used it like everybody else. But he also used a lot of other drugs, some of it performance enhancing and some of it not. And the lifestyle of pro cycling fed into his problems. Pro cyclists, especially during racing season, are cared for around the clock. It’s not a way to learn personal responsibility.

And, if you’re a rising star, especially in Vandenbroucke’s home country of Belgium, you live in an aura of fame and adulation. Vandenbroucke was "God" to the Belgian fans.

For him, that fame and adulation lasted longer than his cycling career, even as his career crashed and burned. He could still find parties and everything that went with them.

This biography is in large part the story of that crashing and burning. Vandenbroucke became addicted to, maybe among other substances, the sleeping pill Stilnoct. He would take increasingly large doses, along with alcohol, then counter them with amphetamines to get on the bike and race the next day.

And he did try to race. After his results began to wane, he signed on with lesser and lesser teams to continue racing, always dreaming of a comeback. Sometimes it looked as though he might make it back — his talent was so great that on any given day, it could shine through and produce a brilliant ride.

But the trajectory was wrong. The final chapter is Vandenbroucke’s somewhat mysterious death in Senegal in 2009, on a kind of a whim of a vacation trip. His death was ruled to be “natural,” although any investigation appears to have been cut short by his family’s wish to not explore further, via autopsy or other means. He may have committed suicide — he had twice attempted suicide with insulin injections and slit wrists — or he may have died from overdose or mixed dosing by accident.

The comparison between Vandenbroucke’s life and that of Marco Pantani is inevitable. The talent may have been comparable, although Pantani was a different type of cyclist and a much more accomplished one. It’s their personal downward spirals and their deaths that bring them together in the same breath.

Like Pantani, despite all of his faults or because of them, he’s a sympathetic character. And that comes through in the biography. You do mourn for him, and for all that lost potential, personally and professionally.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 1990’s were a grim time for professional cycling, and this is a suitably grim tale.

Frank Vandenbroucke was hailed as the sport’s next generational superstar-to-be. And revered as a god in his native country, cycling mad Belgium.

However a combination of bad decisions, injury, and inevitably drug scandals meant that his career stalled in its infancy, and then ground to a halt completely. As the problems spilled over into his personal life he spiraled out of control, eventually dying at a tragically young age. (Not really a spoiler I hope)

The story is well told here, but poses a few questions. I certainly recall vDB’s emergence and all of the fanfare he attracted, but in retrospect I wonder was the hype ever justified? One Liege and a couple of vuelta stages by his mid twenties, doesn’t add up to legendary status. Was he ever really that good?

The author never asks that question, and never explores the persisting Belgian obsession with anointing the next Merckx, which continues to this day. (Interestingly Edvald Boasson Hagan is referred to in passing somewhere in the book, I don’t recall the context).

So it’s not surprising I suppose, but it’s still disappointing that most of the book is devoted to drug busts, court cases, misadventures and tragedy. There’s not actually very much cycling. A bit like VDB’s career.

A story of wasted talent and the insecurities of fame and wealth. The book is probably one for the cycling fan rather than the general reader. I’m both, and I enjoyed it.

[T. Ghezzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone who loves riding bikes but is far removed from road racing, this book was an excellent deep dive into the passion and culture of professional cycling. I'm fascinated by European cycling culture and the Tour de France, and this story gripped my inner bike nerd from start to finish. I was especially drawn in by Frank’s life off the bike… his personality (dual personality as some note), the love people had for him, and the ups and downs that made him such a compelling-god like figure. The writing is excellent, capturing both the physical and emotional climbs and descents of Frank’s journey on and off the bike.

[Mike Finch · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last two chapters leading up to VDB's death are compelling and deeply sad. Unfortunately all the previous chapters are quite dull. There is excessive detail and almost constant repetition of the same assessment of his character and not particularly well written. VDB was an interesting but obviously flawed character who deserves better.

[Jack Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shocking tale of wasted talent caused by injury and Drug addiction

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

We've got another book of blind hero-worshiping on our hands, folks!

You'll have to excuse me if I cry dry tears when an extremely talented man born in a first world country into a middle class family with good connections wastes it all by being too lazy to work hard or even attempt to get clean after becoming a junkie.

I guess the guy is huge in a particular segment, but McGrath sells him like the OG Lance Armstrong.

There is a lot of looking the other way, and not a lot of critical thinking about the sources. For instance: if you die in a hotel room with a prostitute, you were probably not in a good, loving relationship with some woman from back home.

Anywho, if you're a huge Frank Vandenbroucke-fan you'll probably like it. Otherwise, probably not so much.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

How are the mighty fallen.

I hadn't really heard of Frank Vandenbroucke (VDB) before reading about this book. The reviews made it seem intriguing . . . and it was.

As is true of so many young talented cyclists, VDB was being compared to Eddie Merckx and hailed as the Next Big Thing to come out of Belgium. This biography paints VDB as a talented, generous, extremely likeable young man. In Belgium he was treated, according to this work, as a god for his cycling. Even VDB's autobiography, published in 2007, addressed that problem with its title, "Je ne suis pas Dieu [I'm Not God]."

It is also true that VDB had a number of internal demons driving him to extremes. He began using recreational drugs, drinking heavily, and suffering depressive episodes over a nearly 10 year period. In the end, all of that may have killed him at a fairly young age of 35 while on vacation in Senegal.

It's almost always a tragedy when a talented young person squanders their talent for one reason or another. It's clear that VDB suffered from a number of major flaws, some of which he just couldn't control. In the end, those flaws led to the destruction of his professional career, his personal relationships, and his life.

Sad as it is, this work is very well written. The author interviewed a number of people from many different parts and eras of his life. This depth of source material helped make the book that much better. I never got the feeling that the author, McGrath, used filler material to flesh out the book. In fact, I am very pleased by how thorough and even handed the work is.

In the end, I enjoyed the book. I find reading about pro cyclists entertaining and enlightening. If you are interested in not just the sport but the players, you should read this biography.

[Joe Maggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

An emotionally-charged biography, highly moving. McGrath depicts the tragic life of Frank Vandebroucke, Belgian wonderboy professional cyclist, who falls from being the future of Belgium’s hopes in the sport to a man tragically addicted to drugs and ultimately destined to die too young at the age of 34.

Set against the murky backdrop of cycling in the 1990s, VDB’s early successes are quickly overshadowed when he is engulfed by the intrinsic culture of the sport as it was at the time. Drug use - both performance-enhancing and recreational - begin to pervade his existence, and it is ultimately the latter that tragically proves to be the defining feature. The most emotional part of this book for me is how his friends and family and even VDB himself do make effort after effort to turn things around for him. But ultimately, it’s a losing battle - for myriad reasons, he is simply a man who cannot be saved. A story of unfulfilled potential, of a flawed man yes, but ultimately a victim of the sport’s culture at the time combined with a heavy dose of being dealt a bad hand in life.

[Ash Spedding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed (if that is the right word in the circumstances) reading this. It tells the story of Frank Vandenbrouke's life before, during and after his professional career. It's a sad read, but I think deals mostly fairly and sensitively with Frank and those around him affected by his life and death. I like that the author doesn't (particularly) try and leave you with any one image of Frank or drive anything too hard..he was many things, had many contradictions, as many troubled men are/have. It does a good job of making you feel how those around him must have felt (ie you're endeared to him, despite the conflict that creates given much of his behaviour). Quotes from interviews seem candid and not too much with "rose tinted glasses". Whilst I watched many hours of riding on television during the 90s and early 00s I was too young to really take everything in, so this combined with a few other biographies, memoirs and autobiographies also gives a general picture of what was happening "in the scene" during this period (i.e. the prevalence of doping and substance abuse).

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a few of these warts and all biographies of fallen cycling champions, it’s a pity other sports don’t do their own versions on say drugs in Formula One or premiership Football. Drugs in cycling is nothing new as the author rightly points out in the book, going as far back as the 1906 Tour de France. McGrath retells the story of Frank Vandenbrouche, a Belgian legend, in a thoughtful and non judgemental way, he avoids any questions on the ethics and morality of cheating through chemical enhancement and prefers to concentrate on reporting the historical facts. Leaving the reader to make their own judgements on the rights and wrongs of PED’s in professional

It has to be acknowledged, from reading the book, that although VDB had undoubtable talent, enough to rise to the very top of the sport, he wasted a lot of it in pursuit of a selfish hedonistic lifestyle.

A sad tale of a toxic mix of drugs and glory, played out in pursuit of fame that led to the premature end of a damaged, young talented rider.

[Sean Currie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tragic story that is thoroughly researched and carefully written, though its repetition and less-than-extraordinary storytelling let it down.

McGrath helps cycling novices understand what made Vandenbrouke such a pure, awe-inspiring talent, without going too far into the minutia of the sport.

Like all good sports books, the story stretches beyond the drug-obsessed culture of cycling, and looks at the personal characteristics that drove a great sporting talent into self-destruction. Impressively, McGrath manages to discuss this without veering into pop psychology. There's also occasional reflection on what the beloved "VDB" can tell us about Belgian culture, though this could have been expanded on.

On the other hand, the book felt sadly repetitive. Admittedly, this is partly a reflection of the cyclical nature of somebody trying (and failing) to defeat addiction but combined with unextraodrinary storytelling, it neverthless made the last quarter of the book drag on.

Well worth a read for anyone interested in addiction or sports.

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professional Cycling is not a sport that is renowned for taking care of its heroes. And “God is Dead” tells one of cycling’s sadder tales, that of the gifted - but ultimately doomed - Belgian cycling prodigy Frank Vandenbroucke.

Initially (and very possibly prematurely) dubbed “the Cruyff of Cycling”, Frank Vandenbroucke was a natural all-rounder and wayward genius in a sport that - during the 1990s - was becoming increasingly specialised and regimented.

Frank Vandenbroucke’s story - of being chewed up and spat out by the machine of professional cycling - bears a lot of similarities to the sad, desperate spiral of the late, great Marco Pantani (a connection that Andy McGrath repeatedly references throughout “God is Dead”). A further parallel with Vandenbroucke is that with Jan Ullrich; their heydays overlapped, both were sporting prodigies whose careers were scarred by doping, and after hitting their professional peaks both had personal lives that descended into alcoholism and drug addiction. Indeed, “God is Dead” was published in the same year (2022) as “Jan Ullrich: the Best There Never Was”, Daniel Freibe’s superb biography of the troubled German cycling champion.

And that’s that the problem with “God is Dead”: it is not as good as Freibe’s Jan Ullrich book. This is because Jan Ullrich did, with his Tour de France and Olympics triumphs, fulfil some of his undoubted potential (and so had far further to fall). With Frank Vandenbroucke, after a few promising wins in the Classics, he largely burnt out his career in a blaze of booze, drugs/dope, and chaotic relationships. This means that Andy McGrath’s frequent claims for Vandenbroucke being the great lost light of cycling have to be taken on trust.

Be that as it may, I do enjoy (if that’s the right word) reading about 1990s Professional Cycling, not least because the levels of deceit, rampant doping, and endemic corruption associated with that era make are horribly compulsive. And in the sad tale of poor Frankie Vandenbroucke, “God is Dead” delivers those elements by the lorry-load.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that feels unbalanced – only around 40% on VDB’s rise and cycling successes and the rest on his long fall; and it is hard to disagree with the reviews of the Café Podium Book Corner (https://www.podiumcafe.com/book-corne...) and its conclusion that “McGrath gets to have his cake and eat it, complaining about the tabloid culture that kept Vandenbroucke in the headlines even when he was off the bike while exhuming his rotting corpse and dissecting his private life”.

I was also unimpressed by a back cover that reads: “the Belgian won most of cycling’s most prestigious races, including Liege Bastogne Liege and Paris-Nice” – which would be much more accurate were the words “most of cycling’s most prestigious races, including” deleted (as otherwise VDB won a series of semi-classics and 2 Vuelta Stages)

[Lizzie Worrall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very poignant and sad book. The first half, focussing on the start of a cyclist's career is five stars - well written, funny, witty but also tinged with sadness. The second half, I imagine through information being harder to gather, passes through 18 month career breaks in half a page, and skims over multiple races that were abandoned throughout his last years racing professionally. While understandable from a logistical sense, the story does somewhat lose "the flow" it had achieved at the start. Still a worthwhile read for any cycling fan!

[Richard Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fame

This could be the story of Ben Cousins. Or Janis Joplin. Or Freddie Mercury. Or maybe even Warnie.
Talent > Success > Praise leading to someone who doesn’t have to learn about key parts of growing up, such as control, such as the word “no”.
This is a sad tale, but it’s written in a light style and is not a sad read.

[Yaacov Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cautionary tale about the struggles of fame at a young age. And perhaps more importantly, the ever-present risk of addiction. Frank seemed to fall into the addiction spiral once he was already living a good life. A sad, but important story.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a very interesting read. I really got into cycle sport in the late 1990's so the memory of the short time when Vandenbroucke was at the top of the sport was part of my reason for reading this.

[Dane Jankowiak · Rating 5 out of 5]

VDB was my favorite professional cyclist growing up. This book was perfect for me explaining everything that had happened on the lead up to taking his own life. It really went deep into the madness in regard to professional cycling in the 90’s. Such an amazing talent and interesting human being.

[Grégory Ienco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great portrait of an unpredictable and flamboyant cyclist. Frank Vandenbroucke was one of the greatest but also one of the weakest. It's nice to read how VDB looked from a POV outside Belgium. Great piece !

[Aidan Kernan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Rise and Fall of Belgium Pro Cycling Ace Frank Vandenbrouche. A superstar who should have filled a trophy cabinet but at age 26 blew his talent away on drink and drugs, eventually to die in a rundown hotel in Senegal aged 34.

[Jonny Kelvey-Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A depressing tale of a genius caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Caught in the 90s drug culture in cycling flambouyant Frank never had a chance in this world.

[Paul Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

His demons were bigger than most. What a wasted talent

[T Mart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good if you're a cycling fan of a certain age. As with most biographies, gets better as you read on.

[colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad sad story of wasted talent/youth/life due to addiction.

[Mattia Riva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't know the rider nor his history.

[Jody Shoup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into Frank's struggles and the highs and lows of professional athletes, particularly cyclists who came up in the 90s doping era. Such a sad, unfortunate story.

[Errol Orhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been wondering for a while what the fuss around VDB was all about. Now I know. So should you.

[Chris Nicol · Rating 3 out of 5]

God sports biography about a very talented cyclist who I hadn't known an awful lot about.

[Eirik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written account of a fascinating life.