Christophe Brandt Cyclist

Christophe Brandt (born 6 May 1977 in Liège) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer. He started his career with Saeco, but after one year he transferred to Lotto and stayed there for the rest of his career. In the early 2000s he was a good rider in the big rounds, like a 14-th place in the giro and 33the in the Tour de France. In 2004, he returned a positive test for methadone. He believed the test was a result of a tainted nutritional supplement that he had taken to cure a liver problem. The chemist who had prepared Brandt's prescription confirmed he had been working with methadone on the same day he had preprared Brandt's presciprtion. This did not satisfy Brandt's team management, who fired him. However, later in the year the Belgian Cycling Federation exonerated Brandt, and his Lotto team rehired him. He stayed with them for the remainder of his career before retiring from competition in 2010. Now he's going to train young riders at the Walloon Cycling department.