Not a day like any other: the death of Fabrice Salanson

To the June 3, 2003 Fabrice Salanson is dead. The Frenchman of the Brioches La Boulangère team was found dead in his hotel bed by his roommate Sebastien Chavanel before the start of the Germany tour in Dresden. Salanson was considered one of the rising stars of French cycling.

A few hours after the professional’s death, there was speculation that doping was the cause of death, but this did not materialize. No performance-enhancing substances were found either in the dead man’s hotel room or in Salanson’s body.

Instead, sudden death was finally diagnosed due to insufficient supply of the heart muscles after an enlarged heart. The enlargement of the heart, especially in endurance athletes, the so-called athlete’s heart, is not a disease in itself, but simply an adaptation of the body to the additional stress.

“Shit, life is so cynical,” ex-professional cyclist and current Eurosport pundit Jens Voigt, who was also at the start of the Germany tour at the time, quoted the “Tagesspiegel”. Voigt, himself known for his numerous escape attempts, appreciated Salanson as an “offensive kind of driver”.