If you mention the name Jesper Skibby among Flemish cycling enthusiasts, there is a good chance that they immediately think of the memorable images from the Tour of Flanders 1987.
“I had driven 200 kilometers in the attack and saw the Koppenberg looming up. “What is that? You can’t drive up there, can you?” It was so steep that I couldn’t cycle anymore”, Skibby reminisces in Vive le Vélo, Long live the Ronde.
“Then that car came from the race management and destroyed my bike. The following year they removed the Koppenberg from the Ronde, which I actually thought was a shame.”
Skibby experienced even more disaster in the 1993 Tirreno, when he crashed heavily in a bunch sprint. “My skull was fractured and I had internal bleeding in my brain.”
“Because of that fall I got epilepsy, for which I still take medication. But in the end I still won a Tour stage that same year.”
Since that crash in the Tirreno, pills have ruled Skibby’s life. That’s how he got into the grip of the sedative valium. “That was to stop the noise.”
“I had already started doping at that time and that makes you more active. “Why don’t you take 2 sleeping pills with your Valium?” I thought. Then it became 2 Valiums and 2 sleeping pills. And then 3 Valiums and 3 sleeping pills. “
That abuse continued after his career. “You are suddenly nothing. The black hole. Valium, alcohol,… You name it.”
Skibby hit the low point on New Year’s Eve 2002. “I sat alone and thought: fuck! I took a pack of painkillers and a lot of vodka. “Now I’m going to die”, I thought. But I woke up.”
His wife Mette eventually got Skibby out. “She stood over my bed and gave me an ultimatum: ‘Elisabeth (his daughter) and me or the pills.'”
Skibby chose his family, although the balance is still fragile. “Now it’s going really well, but I don’t need much to get knocked off course again.”
An imposing tattoo of a ram reminds Skibby of this dark period. “A ram means strength. It can survive anything. I am not ashamed of this episode, but proud. People who have walked the same path and yet come out as a normal person should be proud.”
