A professional cyclist from 1987 to 1998, Luc Leblanc, now 56, released his autobiography this Thursday, “Me Lucho. The important thing is to stay alive” (Solar Editions). He recounts his successes, returns to the mockery he suffered during his career. And reveals a terrible episode, that day in 2003, when he went into the forest with the intention of ending his life.
In an interview with Le Parisien, he talks about his depression and this day which almost proved fatal to him. “Five years after the end of my career, I was at the end of my rope, in the throes of depression. I had gained more than 20 kg, and I was subject to a tax audit when I had been the victim of a bad financial adviser.
While he lived near Pau, he left for a wood. “That day, I took my rifle, and I walked for a long time. At one point I sat down by a tree and held the gun barrel to my throat. It lasted a long time. The back against the bark and the finger ready to press… I remade the film of my life. Then I thought of my two children and my family. Finally, I put the gun down and went back down to my village.”
Luc Leblanc also explains to the regional daily that he suffered a lot during his career from “unfair jokes”. “People spent time saying I was a complaining cryer all the time. Lots of people didn’t know about the tragedy of my childhood and didn’t care about my gait when I had a leg injured for life. This tragedy is that day in 1978 when, as a child, he was hit by a car with his brother. His brother died and was seriously injured. “The driver only had two months of license withdrawal. And I ask myself again and again a question vis-à-vis my little brother: why him and not me?
The former world champion also says he “lost” all the money earned during his career, defrauded by his partner who disappeared overnight. Today, he lives “on contracts on the right or on the left” and is still looking for “a permanent job”. With a hope, a desire. “Come back to the community and take care of young people and training. I know how to prepare future champions without grilling them too early for the high level.
