'Something completely different' – Visma-Lease a Bike pro Tiesj Benoot swaps bikes for books to launch local reading week

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.

As Het Nieuwsblad reported on Thursday, Benoot was invited, along with other well-known residents of the joint municipalities of Merelbeke and Melle, just south of Gent, to open the local library's reading week.

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.

"They also picked out some books that related to my job and weren't about just any old topic. The kids really enjoyed that," he said.

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.

"I've ridden the Tour of Flanders eleven times, and the day before, I do get a bit of jitters. But not nerves."

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.

Apparently, he has three books in his race suitcase, one about sleep, another about the human brain and another about athletic performance, but he has yet to get around to finishing any of them.

"They're not fiction," he said. "I'm more of a TV series person in that regard."

There have been some keen readers over the years in the peloton, though. Bauke Mollema is well-known for taking books with him to bike races, and other riders said to be fond of a good book include Tao Geoghegan Hart and Basque Mikel Landa.

Landa reputedly even went so far as to read a couple of biographies of Eddy Merckx to learn more about the local cycling culture before joining his first-ever Belgian team, Soudal-QuickStep, a few years back. Benoot, meanwhile, has been helping a much younger reading audience to learn more about racing in general.