Frank Vandenbroucke (cyclist)

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For other persons named Frank Vandenbroucke, see Frank Vandenbroucke (disambiguation)
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Frank Vandenbroucke (born November 6, 1974 in Ploegsteert), nicknamed VDB1 is a professional Belgian road cyclist. His uncle Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke was also a professional cyclist.

Vandenbroucke was considered to be the best hope of Flemish cycling due to his tremendous talent and ability to win in a variety of races, from Liège-Bastogne-Liège to the Ronde van Vlaanderen. However, his often negative attitude has earned him the nickname "L'enfant terrible" from the press.

He turned professional in 1993 with the Belgian team Lotto, whose directeur sportif was then his uncle Jean-Luc. He switched to the super-team Mapei under the direction of Patrick Lefevere in the middle of the 1995 season and stayed with the team until the end of the 1998 season. He was teammates with fellow Flemish cycling superstar Johan Museeuw. In 1998 he had a breakthrough year during which he won Gent-Wevelgem, two stages and the General classification of Paris-Nice, and two stages of the Tour de la Région Wallonne.

In 1999 he switched to the French team Cofidis where he shared the leadership role with David Millar. His "non-communication" with Millar was widely publicized and criticized at the time. However, the 1999 season was probably even better than the previous one, with wins in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Omloop "Het Volk", and stages in Paris-Nice and the Vuelta a España. His win in Liège-Bastogne-Liège was in such a dominant style that some called him a "genius of cycling", because he announced on television where he would start his attack.

The 2001 season brought him to the Italian team Lampre, where he had a lacklustre year. He switched again to the Belgian team Domo-Farm Frites in 2002 where he was reunited with Lefevere and Museeuw. When Lefevere started a new team Quick Step-Davitamon in 2003 he came along and posted his most promising performance in years when he finished second to Peter van Petegem in the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Although he was happy with his performance, stating that he had done his best to beat van Petegem in the last climbs knowing that Petegem would beat him in the sprint, Lefevere strongly criticized what he considered to be Vandenbroucke's lack of effort. Vandenbroucke then quit the team.

In the 2004 season he joined the Italian team Fassa-Bortolo under the direction of strong-armed Giancarlo Ferretti, vowing to not get paid unless he can win races. Unfortunately he had a largely empty season, and was fired at the end of the season. After a few months off the bike, he joined the MrBookmaker.com cycling team for the 2005 season, with whom he stayed as it became the Unibet.com team in 2005. He was sacked by Unibet in July 2006 for failing to stay in contact with the team during a holiday in Italy. In August 2006, he was caught racing on an Italian amateur circuit, with a license made out to "Francesco del Ponte" (a badly Italianized version of his name, "del Pantalone" being correct) and bearing a photo of the then reigning World Road Cycling Champion, Tom Boonen.

[edit] Selected palmares and teams

  • 1995
    • Paris-Brussels
    • GP de Cholet-Pays-de-Loire
  • 1996 - Mapei
  • 1998 - Mapei
    • Ghent-Wevelgem
    • Paris-Nice
    • Tour de Galice
    • Tour des Régions Wallonnes
  • 2000 - Cofidis
  • 2001 - Lampre
  • 2002 - Domo-Farm Frites
  • 2003 - QuickStep-Davitamon
  • 2004 - Fassa Bortolo
  • 2004 - MrBookmaker.com
  • 2005 - Unibet.com Changing name from MrBookmaker.com due to Unibet.com's takeover of MrBookmaker.com

[edit] Remarks

Note 1: VDB is a very common nickname in Flanders. Another famous Belgian nicknamed VDB, was Paul Vanden Boeynants.

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