Benny Vansteelant

This morning, when I turned on my computer, the first mail I got was one from Pieter with the news that Benny had died. What a punch in my face! We had left Belgium with the good news that Benny was finally doing better (after being hit by a car last Saturday and having been in intensive care afterwards). Here we are now at the other side of the world in a paradise … and all I can think of is Benny. Memories are constantly going through my head. My many training camps in Font-Remeu: he is the one who thought me around in the city and the neighborhood. Four years later, I am still using all the maps he made for me. Me, carefully studying his derailleur, while he made me turn purple climbing a hill. The World championship Duathlon in Geel 2004, which he won and where all his friends afterwards were running around in a BIK T-shirt displaying ’We did it’. I also will never forget that he was the one who prepared and fine-tuned my bike (in Font-Remeu) for the Monaco 70.3 race in 2005. After finishing my bike stint , Sofie had to send him a phone message (he had insisted on it) to let him know that everything had gone perfectly. But what I probably will miss the most, is his perennial little stopper word: ayee…
My planning says that I should bike today, but my bike is still packed. Today I really do not feel able to bike. Tomorrow it will still be difficult, but I know that Benny would have wanted me to do like him: prepare my race into perfection.
My thoughts and condolences go out to his brother Joeri, family and friends. Sofie and I, we find it terrible not to be able to be present at the funeral, because we are already in Hawaii. We will be there in our thoughts though. We will also light a candle for Benny.