Cycling, Museeuw confesses: “After admitting doping I thought about suicide”

In 2007 Johan Museuuw, three Flanders and three Roubaix won in his career, in addition to the 1996 World Cup, he publicly confessed to having used doping substances in the 2003 season, the penultimate of his long career. Now the Belgian, one of the greatest interpreters of pavé of all time, reveals: “After that confession I thought about suicide – Museeuw told Humo magazine -. I was in my car, parked next to a canal and I said to myself ‘I’ve had enough, now I’m throwing myself’. A voice inside me, however, told me not to do it and I listened to her. But that remains the hardest chapter of my whole life. Once I confessed, I felt at the bottom of my hole. I was disoriented, but that was the price to pay. I could no longer live hiding with those secrets. I was one of the first riders of my generation to confess.”

Museeuw: “The bike saved me”

Museeuw, who is now 57 years old and was one of Mapei’s symbolic men, added: “Even in the most difficult moments it was the bicycle that saved me. I felt alone and depressed. For four years I went looking for myself myself. But I came out of it and felt stronger from that moment on.”

“What is the difference between Armstrong and Virenque?”

Finally, Museeuw wonders: “First of all, this sport must stop looking to the past. Furthermore, Lance Armstrong is no longer welcome in the Tour de France while Richard Virenque is still in the Hall of Fame, with his places on the podium. I wonder: what is the difference between the two?”.