Eighty-six race days. Baptiste Veistroffer, at Lotto-Intermarché, took more starts than anyone this season. Second is his teammate Liam Slock, with 83. I read it in the Belgian paper DH, on the workbench, between a cassette and a cold coffee.
People see a record. I see a chain. From 20 January in Australia to 18 October in China. Thirty days in Asia. The Tour de France in the middle. I do not have his bike in front of me, but over eighty-six days a drivetrain feels every one of them. That’s a derailleur problem, and it follows him everywhere.
He tells the DH he almost always said yes when the staff suggested adding a race, because he likes nothing better than racing. I get that. At the club there’s one like that. He says yes to everything, and it’s always his bike I degrease on Monday.
And he adds that the total leaves out some kermesses (village circuit races) he rode in Belgium. So there are extra chain days that are not on the calendar. I count them. The chain does not look at the international calendar, mind you.
The best part is the holiday. Twenty-one days of bikepacking in Cambodia and Vietnam, around 2,500 kilometres. More chain days that will count nowhere. Fine. But at what pressure? Loaded up, you do not pump up like for the Tour.
Holiday days do not appear in the classification. I note that they appear in your workshop.
I’ll go and check the club’s chains, then. Some of them have done fewer than 86 days and are already at the end.
It’s true, we checked: DH Les Sports+.
