For his grace on a bicycle, for his divine talent, for his heavenly looks. Frank Vandenbroucke had it all. In the late nineties he raced with dazzling speed and lived even faster. The Belgian won several of cycling's most prestigious races, including Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Nice and Ghent, enthralling a generation of cycling fans. Yet his rise to prominence coincided with a rampant period of doping and Vandenbroucke had a wayward streak. He regularly fell out with team members and had all night sessions mixing sleeping pills and alcohol. A drugs scandal started a long fall from grace, leading to addiction, car crashes, court appearances, marital problems and suicide bids, puncuated by sporting comebacks.

His life was like a soap opera and its premature ending shocked many. In October 2009, aged thirty-four, Vandenbroucke was found dead in a Senegalese hotel room - in mysterious circumstances. Led by candid contributions from his closest family, friends and associates, William Hill award-winning author Andy McGrath lays bare Vandenbroucke's turbulent life story.