God is Dead

'With his talent, Frank is the Johan Cruyff of cycling. He could win anything.'

Eddy Merckx

'I sometimes wonder if he was too intelligent to be a rider. He was a genius.'

Patrick Lefevere

'In Belgium, we need heroes, examples. People who don't break, people who release us from our daily mediocrity. People who can fly, who do things that we cannot. VDB on the Saint-Nicolas.'

Matthias Declercq

'He was shy and introverted, not the extrovert. We could think that he was macho, but he wanted to be loved.'

Jef Brouwers

'People always love comeback stories. Because they recognise that in life, it's all about falling down and standing up.'

Steve De Wolf

How doping killed cycling's 'golden boy'. A shocking, clear-sighted and sympathetic account of a talent destroyed by drugs.

Melanie Reid, The Times

Frank Vandenbroucke had the world at his pedals in the late 1990s ... but off [the bike] the Belgian lived in a soap opera, a mess of addictions, marital problems and, finally, death. McGrath is a sensitive yet compelling guide through this turbulence.

Ben East, The Observer

A stunning biography of this troubled individual. 320 pages of brilliance.

Washing Machine Post

Captures the charisma and chaos of Vandenbroucke's short life perfectly.

Cyclist

A cautionary tale. Gripping yet harrowing.

Bikeradar

9/10

Road.cc

'Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke was one of the sport's greatest ever talents - a charismatic but hard-partying maverick who was nicknamed 'God' by his legions of fans. So how did he end up dead in a Senegal hotel room at the age of just 34? Andy McGrath tells his tragic story.'

The Daily Telegraph

Superb. A riveting, warts-an-all dive into a complex, deeply flawed rider and man during professional cycling's lowest ebb.

Cycling Plus

'A riveting, warts-an-all dive into a complex, deeply flawed rider and man'

Cycling Plus

'McGrath covers the rise and fall of Frank Vandenbroucke with sensitivity and not sensationalism... from winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège to doping and addiction, suicide attempts, court appearances and his death, no stone is left unturned when delivering the truth about 'cycling's great wasted talent'

Cyclist

My favourite cycling book of the year... McGrath has penned arguably the most insightful cycling biography to date. It leaves you both questioning how the sport was so dysfunctional while perversely pining for more stories from the doomed era.

Joe Laverick, Cycling Weekly

The fact that we know the tragically opaque ending of this story from the start is what lends such a devastating quality to McGrath's careful biography. Soberly told and with a clear affection for its wayward subject, McGrath's account explores the narcotically corrupting power of sport itself.

Jonathan Liew, Guardian

'Poignant, painful but utterly riveting...covered with careful sensitivity by McGrath, painted in all its grey complexity with an absence of judgment. A captivating read' Irish Independent

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