On the comeback trail again, Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke admitted to the magazine Che, "I was doped in 1999 when I won the Liège-Bastogne-Liege." Slated to make his return in the Beverbeek Classic this weekend, he insists that even though he was using performance enhancing drugs, he won the race fair and square.
"Nevertheless, it was a fair race, a fair result. I didn't do anything that the second, third, fourth, fifth ... place finishers on that day didn't. We fought with the same weapons." said Vandenbroucke.
Rather than being general about doping, the Belgian made it a point to say that he believed all of the riders in the top results on that day, including Michael Boogerd, Maarten Den Bakker, Michele Bartoli and Paolo Bettini, were all doping.
Second place finisher on the day Micheal Boogerd, now retired, told depers.nl jokingly, "If I had doped on that day, I would have won." Later in the interview he said, "It could be that we had the same that day, but it was a brown bread with cheese. I'll no longer take Vandenbroucke seriously."
The accusations will likely fade away as the cyclists he mentioned are all retired and mostly out of the mainstream.