eBay Finds: 2000 Farm Frites team cycling jacket

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Next up in our eBay Finds series is this Farm Frites team jacket from the 2000 season: a year during which the Dutch team boasted the likes of Peter van Petegem, Servais Knaven and Robbie McEwen.

Take a look at the Farm Frites jacket on eBay here

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The seller writes that this 2000-season jacket belonged to Belgian rider Dave Bruylandts – a somewhat notorious Belgian who was fired from Farm Frites in March of that year after recording a haematocrit level of 53 per cent.

He was nevertheless taken on by Belgian team Palmans-Ideal for the rest of the season, and then joined Domo-Farm Frites in 2001, which was effectively a completely different team that took riders and staff from the 2000 Mapei-QuickStep outfit, including Johan Museeuw and Wilfried Peeters, and manager Patrick Lefevere, and was registered in Belgium.

In July 2004, it was announced that Bruylandts – by then riding for Chocolade Jacques – had tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test that April.

"I won't contest the result," he said at the time. "The only possible explanation is that there was something in the products I got from my nutritional advisor, whom I trust. It was certainly a mistake to trust him. I have started my own investigation."

He served an 18-month suspension, and then returned to competition with Belgian Continental team Klaipeda-Splendid in 2007, before retiring from racing in 2008.

The seller says that Bruylandts' name has long faded from the label, and the team would be best remembered as one from the start of the new millennium that enjoyed a decent racing season that year, with 17 victories in all.

Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen took victories at the Tour Down Under and the Trofeo Cala at the Challenge Mallorca that year, and Geert Van Bondt won Gent-Wevelgem and a stage of the Tour of Denmark, while Jans Koerts won a stage at the Vuelta a España and Sergei Ivanov took wins at the E3 Harelbeke and two stages at the Tour de Pologne, as well as the Russian road race title.

The US-based seller offers information on sizing of the jacket in the listing, and will ship worldwide. They're looking for US$69 (£56) for what looks from the photos to be a fleece-lined jacket, which they say has "no visible rips, tears or stains".

Thanks to one of our readers, John, who emailed us to let us know about the Farm Frites jacket.

We're constantly on the lookout for unique and rare cycling relics on eBay. If you have any suggestions or leads, please send them to cyclingnews@cyclingnews.com with 'eBay Finds' in the subject line.