Getting on your bike with cycling legends
KATIE BUTLER heads to Belgium to follow in the tyre tracks of five-times Tour de France winner Eddie Merckx
IF 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 as ‘exciting’ as it used to be.
After a quick photograph with the cycling hero - I hopped on the Belgian brand Ridley’s 2017 Fenix SL Disc Ultegra model and headed to the start. What was to come was genuinely a sportive like no other I have ever experienced. There were the usual young to middle-aged lycra clad club riders - but then, what made it unique, was the wide variety of riders from all disciplines of the sport.
There were Deliveroo riders, fixed gear riders, and also a guy with a crate of beer, on the full spectrum of bikes weaving in and out of the city’s beautiful roads.
It soon became apparent I was riding in the true home of cycling. Riding bikes is in this country’s blood and has an almost 200-year-old history. The roads were beautifully quiet country lanes - for the whole route may I add. Picturesque, meandering, smooth country lanes. Then there were the cobbles. They were jittery, bone rattling but fun. Well, for a few metres. The houses and architecture screamed affluence and individuality.
Drivers and traffic are commonly the reason why people don’t take up the sport. But in Belgium it’s not even an issue.
Most drivers are also cyclists, I’m told, which means you’re given plenty of room when riding. The only time you might get a cheeky horn blast by a driver is if you’re on the road when there is a specific bike path (as there are on a lot of the country’s roads).
Back to the route itself, there were arrows marking out each course - 85km, 115km and 155km. The famous Muur was only an option for the 155km route but sadly (or luckily?!) time constraints meant I opted for the middle route.
Hearing about the 155km route afterwards and its cobbled, uneven 23% averages - it sounded brutal. Well worth another visit, and I will be back to actually tackle that cobbled section of cycling history. At the finish line, rather than the usual isotonic sports drinks, in true Belgian style we were all handed a beer. I actually couldn’t find a bottle of water anywhere and was told this was the ‘Belgian way’. Bottles chinking, people laughing and cheering, sweat covered caps, and bikes by their sides. THIS was the way to do a sportive.
And this was just one of literally hundreds of rides for locals on their home turf (or cobbles), or for those coming from other countries to experience the Belgian way of riding.
There are also other rides in the spirit of other cycling legends, such as Fabia Cancellara, Philippe Gilbert, Greg Van Avermaet, and Sven Nys.
One of the highlights of our fast-paced cycling tour of the country was the course we got to tackle at Sven Nys’ very own cycling centre. Usually a road-bike lover, I turned my hand - or legs - to cyclocross and mountain biking.
Entirely new to me - a self-confessed wimp - I got so much out of this session. Perched on heavy mountain bikes with some extreme gearing - 26-42 and totally different from the previous day’s 36-28 (if this means nothing to you, the mountain bike can spin up some STEEP hills).
It was such a different experience to being on a road bike. Loose rocks, ridiculously tight bends, pools of mud, all incredibly exhausting, yet rewarding. While I was negotiating a downhill (it really wasn’t that steep) I saw children whizzing past without a second thought.
That’s the great thing about Belgium - there is riding for absolutely everybody and it’s second nature to most people here. Whether it’s commuting, cyclocross, mountain biking, road… it’s all catered for, and then some. There are thousands of sportives every single year and with so many cyclists flocking from around the world to tackle the roads that cycling heroes once rode, Belgium is definitely one for the bucket list.
WHAT ELSE TO SEE
We stayed in Leuven, which is the capital city as well as the beer capital of Flemish Brabant.
Most famous is its creation of Stella Artois which is brewed in part of the world’s largest brewery, AB InBev.
But there are hundreds of varieties to choose from. Sweet, sour, blond, fruity, woody, you name it, they had a beer for it.
The beautifully pretty and quaint city also is home to the longest bar in the world.
With an impressive 38 places to sit down and enjoy a refreshing sip of the local alcohol, all side by side, that in itself has become a huge attraction - especially for the 40,000+ students that desscend on the city every year and take on the challenge to drink in each on a night out.