VDB = WTF
I’ve been only vaguely paying attention to pro cycling this year, still getting over the scandal garbage from last season. But this news snippet caught my eye this morning (via Cyclingnews):
VDB hoping for the Giro d’Italia
By Susan Westemeyer
Frank Vandenbroucke is in the middle of physical therapy for the knee which was operated on last month and can’t race again until the end of April, but he is already planning his season. “My intention is to be ready for the start of the Giro,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws. “There are still 70 days, so it must be possible.
“I can forget the spring,” he said. “As long as my muscle mass hasn’t returned to normal, there’s no point in pushing the training.”
VDB now rides for Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo, and said that the team knows that there is no guarantee on his knee. “I’ve got their full support. There is no pressure from them. They said if I wanted to continue riding, I should. And I want to. But it’s not getting easier.
“I was tip-top shape in my head and my legs. And now this. I am 32, the years are flying by,” he concluded.
ANOTHER COMEBACK?!?!??!
This guy was a slam-dunk superstar nearly a decade ago, winning classic races left and right — and definitively — then some obvious mental health issues kicked up, and combined with drug use, left him a glorious wreck for years. He stages comebacks every now and again, but I thought that he had finally been given up a year or two ago. If he actually makes it into the Giro, and a few other summer races? Could be fascinating to see if any of the ability that was so mind-boggling in the 90s is still there.
