God is Dead by Andy McGrath

Author:Andy McGrath [McGrath, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473563377
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2022-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

There was no admission of use at the time, though during the interrogation about the clenbuterol, Vandenbroucke muttered a line that would become much ridiculed: ‘It’s for my dog.’ (According to De Geyter, Vandenbroucke owned a Dobermann.) In 2004, the doctor in charge of the toxicological exam for these products said that he’d expect this combination to be used by ‘a dwarf with chronic kidney problems who suffers from anaemia, a heart defect and psychotic behaviour’.

Vandenbroucke later suggested most of the products were past their expiry date or were from the previous year, a dark period in his life. The box of clenbuterol was unopened; three unused morphine ampoules had been given to him by the doctor after his wrist break at the 1999 Worlds; and three empty Aranesp ampoules hailed from Spain and had expired on 15 January 2002.

‘Did I buy the doping products found in my house? Cross my heart, I don’t know. But obviously the drugs found in boxes in my house didn’t get there by themselves. Did I ever use EPO? Unfortunately our society is not yet ready for this discussion. But to put the argument forward, if I had used it, would it diminish my results? You don’t make a tiger of a cat, the best are the best,’ he wrote in Ik Ben God Niet.

The next morning, twenty-nine-year-old magistrate Philippe Van Linthout went to the court at Dendermonde to see which cases he had inherited overnight. The answer was self-evident – he couldn’t even enter the premises, he says, such was the number of journalists ‘climbing over each other. That was the first time I was confronted with paparazzi. If nowadays we have a case like that, I think we would have put police around the court to stop people from entering.’ It was unusual for such a high-profile figure as Vandenbroucke to be seen at a small provincial court, and headlines of EPO, clenbuterol and morphine found at a national sports star’s home brought scandal-scenting press in their droves. Van Linthout would become the public prosecutor in the proceedings.

At 9.30, Vandenbroucke, clad in a black zip-neck top and his ultramarine team-issue tracksuit bottoms, was led through the gallery by policeman Ronny Brackx, his left wrist handcuffed. As the duo approached the foot of the stairs leading to the public prosecutor’s office, a press pack captured them and two cameramen ran a few metres behind.

Vandenbroucke avoids eye contact, his face ashen. It looks like he wishes he wasn’t there; certainly, the press should not have been. ‘The shot was made from a door that was broken open to have access to the corridor,’ Van Linthout says. Usually, even prosecutors had to ring for access. ‘They should have been stopped because that’s not a public part of the building.’

The dramatic images of the manacled cycling champion on the way to see investigating judge Evy Muylaert subsequently went round Belgium and the wider world. ‘I find that horrible for him. Because I am now an investigating

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