MILAN, Italy (AP) -- Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke intends to return
to racing after a suicide attempt.
"I will return because, as long as there is life, there is hope,"
Vandenbroucke said in Monday editions of the Gazzetta dello Sport. "Cycling
is and will be the first reason for life and soon I'll put everything back
to normal. I want to get myself better and return to training, to return to
the levels that should still be mine."
The 32-year-old cyclist was taken to the hospital Wednesday after slitting
his wrists. He was reportedly depressed because his wife had left him.
"It was an act of desperation," Vandenbroucke said. "My family was
everything."
Vandenbroucke, who rides for Acqua & Sapone, hasn't won a race in three
years. He was sentenced to 200 hours of community service in 2004 after
police found illegal performance-enhancing substances during a raid on his
home in 2002.
"I paid a big price for many years," Vandenbroucke said. "Now I don't
understand all these people in this sport that first complain, then say that
they have used substances and then repent."
Cycling has been rocked by a series of doping admissions in recent months.
Several former Team Telekom riders -- including 1996 Tour de France winner
Bjarne Riis, along with Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag -- have admitted using EPO
during the 1990s.
Ivan Basso, the 2006 Giro d'Italia champion, also confessed to "attempted
doping" relating to the Spanish blood-doping investigation, but said he
never went through with it.
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