Professional cyclists who died from suspected steroids abuse

Steroids or performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) have been prevalent in cycling for years, with riders pushing themselves beyond their own limitations to win races.

Over the years, hundreds of riders have been caught taking EPO and other performance enhancing drugs.

Cycling had major problems with steroids in the late 80s through to the early 2000s, with many riders all taking the same drugs to gain an advantage.

Lance Armstrong is the prime example of steroids giving a rider the advantage, winning seven Tour de France titles before they were stripped in 2012.

The use of steroids has led to hefty bans, prison sentences, and even riders dying from overdoing their dosage.

Here are cyclists who have died from conditions due to taking Performance Enhancing Drugs.

At the 13^th stage of the 1967 Tour de France, British rider Tom Simpson fell unconscious with his hands gripped to his handlebars. A helicopter rushed him to the hospital, where he died 40 minutes later.

The French authorities found that Simpson had Amphetamine in his system, pushing beyond his bodily limits. After his death, tests for PEDs became mandatory in cycling.

Geert Van de Walle was a Belgian rider who raced for Lotto and Isoglass-Robland between 1986 and 1988 after becoming Belgium's amateur champion in 1985.

At 23, while playing football with his friends, Van de Walle had a heart attack. It's impossible to say his death had to do with drugs, but the rise in EPO in cycling and the early age of his death indicated that his heart problems had to do with PEDs.

Bert Oosterbosch had a ten-year professional cycling career, winning three Tour de France stages and the Ronde van Nederland. His heart attack in 1989 has been linked to early EPO use.

Willy Voet, the disgraced former physiotherapist, claimed he had used Synacthen, which had initially blocked his ability to work hard and caused his downward spiral of health.

Johannes Draaijer was a Dutch cyclist who won two stages at the Peace Race in 1987 and one stage at the Tour of Murcia. He also finished 130^th in the 1989 Tour de France.

Picture – Wikimedia Commons/ Bundesarchiv_bild

Draaijer died in his sleep in 1990, suffering from a heart block. His death was not attributed to drug use, but his wife later told German magazine 'Der Spiegel' that her husband became sick off EPO.

Marco Pantani was one of the best cyclists in the 1990s, winning a Tour de France in 1998 and securing eight stages in his career.

The Italian rider was found dead in his hotel room in 2004, revealing he had suffered a cerebral edema and heart failure. In 2013, it was found that Pantani had been using EPO from tests conducted in the year of his death.