BENCYCLINg

Bencycling.be is for 95% about Ben who challenges himself on the bike, competing in endurance bikepacking events and races. The other 5% procent is about me, Pieter, who also likes some cycling and bikepacking, but also likes the dotwatching, phototaking and storytelling part that inevitably comes along with the adventures Ben is taking part in. This website is thus a part of this. If it is possible I am at the start or the finish of Ben’s adventures and I even followed him a bit ‘en route’ when he was doing his French Divide in 2016. But I also encourage Ben to capture memories and inspire others by taking pictures and telling his stories via his instagram and facebook page.

I know I got inspired and although I still have to ride my first bikepacking race, I do have ridden some longer distance routes, both on my own and with some friends. I tried to be a part of the Trancontinental Race n°5 but didn’t get selected. I then decided to do a part of the route (I did the part from Geraardsbergen, Belgium to the Monte Grappa, Italy) as a start of my holiday to Croatia with my girlfriend. Needless to say this was a great ride and adventure.

We both have a background in soccer, but we also both had to retire because of injuries. It is not that we played professionally, but it still was a big part of our lives. Cycling became after that. For Ben, it started with a bicycle trip through Thailand with his wife, but it escalated quickly into a way of life and wanting to search for his limits, being outdoors and going on new adventures. This goes from riding his bike to work every day to going on short bikepacking trips with friends and trying to compete in at least one bikepacking race every year. 

This site focusses on the bikepacking races Ben did with some info about every event, then mostly pictures and some short impressions from Ben about his adventures. This site is a project of me, Pieter, and is purely for fun. Side effects for visitors can be that people get addicted to dotwatching or get inspired to do something similar. 🙂 There are plenty more and probably far better websites than this one about bikepacking, but this is purely about two brothers having fun and combining their hobbies. 

We come from a family of five, living in Flanders, Belgium. Mom and dad are definitely our biggest supporters and thanks to them we can live our lifes as we do now. We have another brother, Tim, who is the youngest. He is a professional personal trainer. So if you are from around here and you want to get ready for some big adventure and want to ge fit(ter), then go to Coaching for Health and tell him I send you, haha. I couldn’t not make some advertising here.

Enjoy the ride!

Cheerz