Frankie Andreu

Frankie Andreu rode the points race on the track at the 1988 Olympics, but is much better known as a road racer. He competed in the road race at the 1996 Olympics, just missing the podium with a fourth-place finish, although he was not in the final pack of three that contested the podium positions. After the 1988 Olympics, Andreu joined the 7-Eleven professional team that became Motorola in 1991, and continued to ride with them through the 1996 season. He then spent a year with Cofidis, but in 1998 returned and rode from 1998-2000 with US Postal Service, the former Motorola team. Throughout his professional career, Andreu was basically a domestique, and with Motorola / US Postal, he rode primarily in support of Lance Armstrong, at one time a close friend.

Andreu had only a few wins as a professional. He won stage seven of the 1994 Tour of Poland, stage six at the 1997 Mi-Août Bretonne, and stage five of the 1998 Tour du Luxembourg. In classics his best finish was ninth at the 1994 Paris-Roubaix, while his best major stage race finish was eighth on GC at the 2000 Paris-Nice.

Andreu retired after the 2000 season and became an announcer for televised cycling in the US. But problems arose with Armstrong, after Lance’s cancer diagnosis and treatment. Andreu and his wife, Betsy, were in a hospital room with Armstrong when Betsy claimed to have heard Armstrong admit to a doctor his litany of drug usage.

Betsy was a bulldog on this and demanded that Armstrong admit his use of PEDs when he started winning the Tour de France and other races in the late 1990s, and this caused a major rift between Andreu and Armstrong. As Armstrong was the most powerful rider in the sport, it also made it more difficult for Andreu to get hired by bicycle companies. Eventually, Armstrong’s house of cards collapsed and he admitted to years of PED usage in 2012, proving Betsy Andreu correct.