THE GOOD LIFE Cycling
T
hey used to call Eddy Merckx ‘The Cannibal’. The Belgian is, by a distance, the greatest road cyclist of all time. He won the Tour de France,
the sport’s biggest prize, on five occasions – and picked up six more victories in the other three-week ‘grand tours’ of Italy and Spain. He also claimed five ‘monuments’, cycling’s most prestigious and historic one-day races, as well as three world championships and the coveted ‘hour record’, travelling 49.4km in 60 minutes in 1972, on a steel bike. The range of his victories – over varied distances and ter- rain, requiring such different physical attrib- utes – means that it is vanishingly unlikely such dominance will ever be witnessed again. However, on the weekend when he and I meet, Merckx will be feasting on Miche- lin-starred food – not the flesh of his rivals. We shake hands on a cool autumn morning
as Merckx, now 76, prepares – somewhat gin- gerly – to brave the drizzle and join a peloton of amateur cyclists on the roads of the Cham- pagne region in northern France. He gamely poses for a selfie with me and several other
‘It is
vanishingly unlikely that cycling will
see dominance like Merckx’s ever again’
lycra-clad fans, but unlike some professional cyclists of his era Merckx has not sought to cultivate much of a public profile. He still lives on a farm in his native Belgium with his wife Claudine, whom he started dating when he was 19. He is here, in the limelight, because he has been persuaded (with the help of an undis- closed fee) to be part of an event hosted by LeBlanq. The company is the brainchild of chef Ashley Palmer-Watts and Justin Clarke, a British former professional cyclist who had a second career as the founder of the Taste of London food festival. When this business was acquired by the sports and events manage- ment giant IMG in 2012, Clarke came with it and worked on expanding the Taste festivals internationally.
It was on one of these international trips, a visit to Australia, that Clarke met Palmer- Watts – a 20-year veteran of Heston Blumen- thal’s culinary empire, who became head chef of the Fat Duck in Bray when he was just 25. When Clarke discovered that Palmer-Watts had shipped his top-of-the-range Pinarello road bike with him to the other side of the world, he knew he’d found a kindred spirit; the pair made a pact to work on a project that would unite their shared loves of cycling and fine food. The result is LeBlanq, which is difficult to
define. It is an events business, cycling club, tour operator and digital content producer all rolled into one. (Clarke’s LinkedIn profile describes him as a ‘global experiential brand builder’.) LeBlanq’s launch was postponed by the pandemic, but it got off the ground in May of last year with a ride through the Surrey coun- tryside that was sandwiched between two gourmet meals at a high-end restaurant. More one-day events followed, with former professional cyclists – such as Sir Chris Hoy, Sean Yates and Sir Bradley Wiggins – and ce- lebrity chefs getting involved too. In August, tickets for a ride starting and finishing at Ray- mond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxfordshire sold out within half an hour. Palmer-Watts believes there’s a natural
connection between food and cycling: both are rooted in an appreciation of the land. Clarke notes that both tribes – chefs and cy- clists – share an appreciation of hard work. To me, it also seems relevant that spending five or six hours pushing the pedals can create a
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