Frankie Andreu

Frankie Andreu (born September 26, 1966) is a former professional cyclist whose career highlights include riding as team captain of the U.S. Postal Service cycling team along with Lance Armstrong in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Cycling career
Frankie Andreu was born September 26, 1966 in Dearborn, Michigan. He began his cycling career in track cycling, winning the individual pursuit during the 1984 Junior National Track Cycling Championships in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. In 1985, he placed first in the Madison during the National Track Cycling Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana. and second in the points race and team pursuit. In 1988, Andreu qualified to represent the United States Cycling Team in Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea where he placed eighth in the points race.

Andreu moved from track cycling to road cycling after signing to the 7-Eleven Pro Cycling Team in 1989 when he finished his first professional stage race, the Giro d'Italia. His highest finish in the Tour de France was second during the 18th stage of the 1993 race where he was teammates with a young Lance Armstrong on the Motorola Pro Cycling Team. Andreu finished fourth in the road race during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.

He is best remembered by the professional cycling community for his role as a "super domestique," particularly for sacrificing personal gain for the benefit of other teammates during many races.

Drug use
In an interview with the New York Times in September 2006, Andreu admitted that he had taken EPO to help prepare for the 1999 Tour de France, when he was riding for the US Postal team which assisted Lance Armstrong to his first Tour victory. Andreu said he was introduced to performance enhancing drugs in 1995 while he was riding for Motorola.

Armstrong testimony
In 2006, Andreu and his wife Betsy testified that Lance Armstrong told cancer doctors in their presence in 1996 he had doped with EPO (Erythropoietin), growth hormone and steroids. The Andreus' testimony was intended to remain sealed in court documents and is among thousands of pages of documents related to litigation between Armstrong and a Texas-based company that was attempting to withhold a $5-million bonus. Armstrong swore under oath it didn't happen. Frankie Andreu never offered information to media sources on the topic until court documents were released. He then stood by his testimony when giving interviews. A settlement was reached in February 2006 before the three-person arbitration panel made a ruling. As part of the settlement, SCA Promotions paid Armstrong and Tailwind Sports $7.5 million, to cover the $5-million bonus plus interest and lawyers' fees. In a statement, Armstrong said, "It's over. We won. They lost. I was yet again completely vindicated." Armstrong's statement also suggested that Betsy Andreu may have been confused by possible mention of his post-operative treatment which included steroids and EPO that are routinely taken to counteract wasting and red-blood-cell destroying effects of intensive chemotherapy.

Post racing career
Andreu has served as a bicycle race commentator for Universal Sports on the Versus television network since retiring from professional cycling in 2001 and remains active in domestic pro racing, often lending his voice and knowledge announcing for professional races.

Andreu was fired as Team Director for the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team on July 25, 2006 for not fulfilling his contractual obligations.

In 2007, Andreu became the director of Rock Racing, but resigned in January 2008 stating differences "with business strategies and the direction the team is headed". When Andreu started out with Rock Racing, he described in a Cycling News interview how attitudes in cycling had changed, and that it was no longer acceptable to use drugs. A year later, it was clear that there were differences between him and the owner of Rock & Republic jeans, Michael Ball. Andreu was unhappy that his role as a director was being undermined; in some instances, he was not consulted before riders were signed. Many of the riders, including Tyler Hamilton, Santiago Botero, Oscar Sevilla and Mario Cipollini, were involved in or linked to drug investigations in cycling. This raised eyebrows, especially when aligned with Ball's "win or you're fired" mentality. ""Rider choices, sponsor choices, the way they were handling the prospective sponsors... they are an aggressive team and everything they do is aggressive. The cycling community is small and to me it is important to keep friends and not win at all costs.""

Andreu is working with the American women's cycling team, Proman, in 2008. The team hoped to draw attention to women's cycle racing with Andreu's leadership.