Some European-based pros take off to exotic locations in their off-season, others simply stay at home and avoid suitcases at all costs.
However, when it comes to the number of riders opening the reading week at their local libraries – as Belgian pro Tiesj Benoot did this week – as their chosen November activity, it’s fair to say it’s an exception rather than the rule.
Earlier in the week, the 31-year-old read for half an hour from three books – all about cycling, naturally – to a young audience, an experience which he recognised was “something completely different for me, of course,” he told Het Nieuwsblad.
A pro since 2015 and winner of stages in Paris-Nice as well as Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and Strade Bianche in his time, the experienced Visma-Lease a Bike racer is soon to join Decathlon CMA CGM on a three-year contract. But he said that his venture into reading to a young audience, if new, was in no way daunting – just as he no longer felt nervous before the biggest bike race.
“A little at first, but after that: ‘ça va‘. I’m always a bit uneasy about speaking in front of an audience, but it wasn’t too bad,” he said.
Whilst Wednesday’s reading material in Merelbeke library was entirely about cycling – ‘The New Bike’ by Darcy Day Zoells, ‘Mouse Goes Cycling’ by Lucy Cousins, and ‘The Time Trial’ by Rod Waters – Benoot said that he is not such a good reader himself.
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