Vandenbroucke: Belgium or Italy?

Frank Vandenbroucke will decide soon where he will ride next year. "The question is whether I will remain in Belgium or Italy," said the 32 year-old Belgian. He has a meeting this week with his manager, Paul De Geyter, "who has several teams' offers in his hand."

"If I stay in Belgium then I would want to ride the whole Belgian program, which suits me so well," he said, according to the Belga press agency. He is currently under contract to the Italian team Acqua & Sapone. "At Acqua & Sapone I have not always had the possibility of riding those races, because the team has chosen to skip them." He has another reason for wanting to return to his homeland to ride, he noted. "It would be good for me to be supported by my faithful fans. For that reason I would like to ride for a Belgian team. This way I would be close to my fans."

There would be no problems with providing a medical certificate, the troubled rider said. "I had only to submit a paper saying that I wasn't taking any medication after my suicide attempt earlier this year. That has been done. Also I had an electrocardiogram and sent all the necessary paperwork to all the correct agencies."