I am not now, nor have I ever been much of a Mötley Crüe fan. I’ve learned more than I wanted to know about the members of the band from this book which I wasn’t looking for. It found me in the little free library and I almost chucked it back, but I couldn’t put it down.
Here and now I was looking for this VDB book and I bought it on eBay. But I will say that when Frank Vandenbroucke was kicking ass over in Europe in the late 90s, I wasn’t really paying attention to pro bike racing. I was a bike messenger and I thought I knew a lot about bicycles.
I’m going way way out on a limb here claiming to be the only person on earth that’s reading these two books at the same time. A chapter here. A chapter there. Bouncing back & forth. Connecting dots between the two. Noting common themes: sex, drugs and bicycles. Plenty of drugs. Drugs, drugs, drugs and alcohol too. EPO and heroin. Cocaine and EPO. Growth hormones, steroids, testosterone, amphetamines, morphine, clenbuterol, alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. Sleeping pills and alcohol. Excessively excessive excess. Self destruction. Eyebrows and hairstyles. Hair spray. Pyrotechnics. Car accidents.
Pointing to inexplicable parallels.
Talking in time lines:
1978
VDB was 4 years old and out on a bike ride when he was hit by a car. The collision left permanent damage to his knee after multiple surgeries.
Mötley Crüe was three years away from becoming a band in Hollywood.
I was in Mrs Grier’s 3rd grade at Audubon Elementary School and riding a Blue Schwinn Stingray.
1994
VDB was a pro at age 19 with Lotto turning heads winning big races
Mötley Crüe released their sixth album and Tommy Lee was somewhere between Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson.
I was working at Whatcom Pathology Lab in Bellingham. A car courier driving all over Whatcom County, schlepping lab reports, pap smears, urine samples, blood, various biohazards and body parts. I was riding a GT Continuum on 700d wheels. That's a 587 BSD. No joke.
2001
VDB was into a stretch of disappointment. Unable to match the phenomenal success he achieved in the late 90s, he bounced between teams and had various setbacks, legal problems, drug problems, marital problems and suicide attempts.
Mötley Crüe released their autobiography The Dirt which would then become a 2019 Netflix rockumentary.
I was between legal messenger jobs, working for a remodeling contractor. I thought you said you’d never forget.
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