Records

UCI Leuven 2021

On 26 September 2021, the 100th edition of the UCI Road World Championships ended on the sloping Geldenaaksevest after 268 kilometres from Antwerp through the hills of Flemish Brabant. It is the greatest annual event in professional cycling. That year marked the return of the World Championships to Belgium after almost two decades, to a country where cycling is woven into everyday life with an intensity unmatched elsewhere. Its final six circuits passed directly in front of my house in Wilsele, where I lived for several years.

Cycling is pain, sweat, and resistance: life condensed into a few hours of suffering, endurance, and grace. It is also the humblest and most proletarian of competitive sports, far removed from the gilded worlds of football and tennis. Six times, that road became a river of helmets, carbon, and effort. Six times, the same neighbours who had set out their chairs hours earlier rose to their feet. These photographs celebrate the riders’ sacrifice and elegance, and through them the dignity of a sport that should not be surrendered to the forces that would refashion it in another image.