A week in the life of Bert Van Lerberghe | Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team

We continue our series with one of the newest members of the Wolfpack, the 27-year-old Belgian from Kortrijk.

After my crash in Le Samyn, I had to rest a bit and stay off the bike, as it was painful to train and I needed to recover before resuming training. I returned to the bike after three weeks and began gradually building sessions, combining it with physiotherapy each week, as well as core and power training. We were allowed to train outside in Belgium and that made a big difference – twice I did some long 200km rides on my Specialized and it felt great!

I took advantage of that to do some mountain bike and cyclo-cross rides, which was really fun and I enjoyed it a lot. I also got to train with some of my teammates – Tim, Yves or Stijn – the guys in “De Melkerie”, which was nice, especially as the weeks went by, and I began missing the team more and more. We’re still two months before the restart of the calendar and it’s hard knowing it will be August before we return to racing, but we try to take heart from the fact that now we have a calendar and know when the races will take place.

Usually, in the spring, I don’t get to stay at home so much, just a few days, but this time around things were different, and I loved spending my time with my wife and son Romain and seeing him grow. I could play with him a lot, we took him out for a one-hour walk every day and that was relaxing, and it helped cope with this whole situation. Family is the most important thing and to have mine by my side and just have a good time together it’s something for which I’m very grateful.

Being at home meant I could have more time for some welding. Normally, in the winter, when I have four weeks off, I do it. I wouldn’t call it a passion but I like it and it relaxes me. I was introduced to it by my best friend Tim Merlier after helping him with some projects and it became a thing, so from time to time I take on some projects. Most recently, I did a barbecue for the summer; ok, it’s not perfect and has some flaws, but overall is nice and I like it. Apart from that, I watched a few series on Netflix and Belgian TV and played some Age of Empires ll. Not too many times, as both Tim and Yves are better than me and beat me every time, but I had fun playing and trying to improve my skills.