You’ll no doubt know that there’s quite a few Belgians in the peloton who are also farmers: Arnaud De Lie was raised on a bull farm; Yves Lampaert famously loves his tractors; and whenever I’m in a room with Mauri Vansevenant – even if he’s on the rollers – he’s watching videos of tractors or farming techniques. He’s crazy in love with farming!

What you might not know is that I too come from a farming family. I grew up on a chicken farm in Aalter, roughly halfway between Bruges and Gent, and my only neighbour was my grandfather, who ran the farm before my father. I have such great memories of my childhood: being upset if I could hear the tractor’s engine and I wasn’t sitting in it; my grandfather teaching me how to drive the tractor when I was 10; milking the cows; and playing in all the space we had, digging holes and creating camps in the forest – it was a freedom that so many school children don’t have. 

It was always a dream of mine to take over the farm in the future, but then I started cycling around the age of 16 and fell in love with it. Because I've been a professional since 2010, I thought that I wouldn’t get the chance to continue the family business, but around 10 years ago my wife, Wendy, said to me that she’d love to work in nature. We sat on the idea for a while and then with my father entering retirement age we decided he would teach her everything and then she’d become the main farmer. For two years she went to evening school, and since last year they’ve been running the farm together. We’re the family’s fourth generation of farmers.

Though we have around 30 bulls and also grow some vegetables like potatoes, carrots and parsnips, the farm’s main business is chickens, and we have 34,000 little chicks on site. They are delivered to us in one camion once they come out of their eggs, and then we feed them for about six weeks. Once they’re ready to go to the butcher, they leave in five or six trucks. We sell to the markets every week, and the chickens are then delivered to many different places.

I have to say chapeau to my wife. She doesn’t come from a farming family, but she’s doing a great job, and now knows much more than I do. She takes our two children to school in the morning and then spends all day at the farm, making sure the chickens are fed and watered, checking if they are in good health or sick, repairing machines, and ensuring that the temperature of the building stays at 35 degrees celsius – that’s so important because these little chickens are so fragile.

When I come back from races or training camps, my way to relax is by doing some of the easy jobs on the farm, like cutting the grass and moving hay. Like Yves and I have said many times: there’s a special kind of freedom of working in the field that you can’t get elsewhere. I don’t do that much right now – it’s all my wife and my father – but it’s good to know that I already have a direction to follow after my career. If I didn’t have the farm, what would I do? After a really long career, it would be tough to go into the normal job market and easy to fall into a blackhole. I’m really thankful that my wife has helped me and she started farming.

For the moment, though, I still love my job as a cyclist, am 100% focused on it, and feel as good as ever. I still have the grinta, the desire to work hard, and to train even if it’s raining. I think I’ll do two more seasons after this one before I retire, but I’ll just take it year by year, depending on my condition. I'm currently looking for a team for 2026 and still feel like I have two more years at the top level.

I’ve been riding for Quick-Step since 2013, but amazingly, despite riding 10 Giros and seven Vueltas, I’ve never ridden the Tour de France. Sometimes I ask myself how that’s possible. With the team switching from a Classics to a GC team, last year was my first realistic chance of going to the Tour, but I didn’t make it. I’m on the longlist again this year, so I’ll be working hard to reach my goal of making my Tour debut aged 36.

Whatever happens, I know what I’ll be doing after retirement: I’ll be on the chicken farm, helping my wife. Our seven-year-old son is more into sport and he wants to be on his bike or to become a footballer – he doesn’t enjoy the farm as much as I did at that age – but our four-year-old daughter is really into all of the animals and enjoys being on the farm. Perhaps the family business will continue for another generation.

- Pieter

You can read more from the In My Words series here.