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F you are a cyclist or Belgian you know who Eddie Merckx is. If you don’t - he is Belgium’s answer to David Beckham, but on wheels.

He won the Tour de France five times in the early 1970s as well as the Giro d’Italia and a plethora of other races, and is one of the country’s, if not the world’s most idolised cyclists.

So a sportive taking in the sights of where he grew up, where he trained and also where he conquered the cobbles was going to be one for my bucket list. And it’s just an hour’s flight to some of the most famous cobbles in the world.

The route started in the Heizel area of Brussels, then trailed across to Pajottenland towards the Flemish Ardennes and looped back around.

As I was heading to the start line, I actually bumped into Eddie Merckx himself. He was milling around the riders giving last minute words of encouragement and talking about how the Tour de France now wasn’t