Melden - Belgium

5 days // 4 nights

April 24 - 28th 2025

£2,750pp*

Limited spaces available

Located in the heart of the Flemish Ardennes, our base is a quiet, modern all-inclusive home for large groups (up to 26 people). The house exudes peace and charm in a homely character.

Each bedroom can be a double or twin configuration and has a private bathroom. The house boasts a spacious kitchen, dining area, living area and private garden with fire pit, BBQ, tree house and relaxation area with a billiard table, foosball table and infrared sauna.

Ample space for parking, tinkering with bikes, and the perfect location for an experience all about the love of cycling and its rich history.

• 5 days activity/ 4 nights stay
• Double/ Twin room as standard - individual available on request (Limited)
• All meals and drinks (set availability) at our base by our own private chef
• 5 guided rides with legends of the sport & intimate dinners/ fire-side conversations with them
• Exclusive behind the scenes experience at a traditional Belgian Kermesse with an ambitious elite U23 women's team
• Personal mechanic, photographer and videographer
• Souvenir musette with special items

And not?

• Travel to and from the experience location
• Personal ride insurance
• Bike hire (Contact us to arrange)

Chris Sidwells - World Renowned Cycling Historian, Journalist and Author.

Johan Museeuw - 3x Tour of Flanders & Paris Roubaix winner.

Peter Van Petegem - 2003 Tour of Flanders & Paris Roubaix double.

Russell Downing - Legendary British rider & our resident professional.

Joanne Simpson - Daughter of the great Tom Simpson.

Simon Law - Videographer to the Nouvelles x Simpson Pro Cycling Team.

Colin Stratton - Professional Cycling Mechanic.

Private Chef - To be announced shortly.

Oh, and a few other special guests to be announced soon...

And our team of additional support staff to make your stay special.

Johan Museeuw was the ultimate cobbled classics rider of the 1990s, winning Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix three times each, plus five other podium places in Flanders and one in Roubaix. He also won Het Nieuwsblad and E3 Prijs Vlaanderen twice, Amstel Gold Race, Paris-Tours, and was road race world champion in 1996, and Belgian champion in 1992 and ‘96.

The ultimate competitor, always there, always trying to win, Museeuw nearly died after a crash in the 1998 Paris-Roubaix on the vicious cobbles of the Forest of Arenberg. He shattered his kneecap and developed an open wound that wasn’t cleaned properly. Gangrene set in and only quick treatment saved him, but even constant morphine could not quell the pain.

It was a terrible time, but Museeuw fought through it to health, then fought longer and harder back to fitness, winning Paris-Roubaix not once but twice more, in 2000 and 2002. That’s character, that’s being a true Flandrien, a Lion of Flanders, best of the best.

Flanders and Roubaix are his races, and this is what Museeuw said about them shortly before he ended his racing career in 2004 after one more Paris-Roubaix. “Flanders and Roubaix are the races I love. I love the cobbles, I love the wind and the rain.

“The Tour of Flanders passed 500 metres from my house, two streets to the right. It reminds me of the race every time I cross it. When I was a kid I organised my own Tour of Flanders with my friends. We asked somebody to write down the results. I took care of the prizes. My dad was a good cyclist, and I took his medals and cups to present to the winner and losers.

“The demands of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are the same. There are more cobbles in Roubaix, Flanders has its hills, but the pain is the same in both. However, after my crash on the Arenberg cobbles and returning to win it twice there will always be a link between me and that race.”

Peter Van Petegem won all the races that make a true Flandrien - Het Nieuwsblad, E3 Prijs Vlaaanderen, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. In 2003 he won Flanders and Roubaix in the same year, which earned him a special place in Flemish cycling. He also had a special gift.

Born in Brakel 14 kilometres from Melden, he grew up in the heart of the Flemish Ardennes, where the cobbled climbs lie that are the key to unlocking success in the Ronde Van Vlaanderen. Peter knows them like the back of his hand, but his special gift is something more than knowledge. It’s an extra sense that in races told him what was going to happen and where to be when it did.   

This allowed him to race in a way that’s almost impossible to copy. Even in the most important races, Van Petegem was always relaxed, but aware. He never wasted energy fighting for position when he didn’t need to, but could ghost from wheel to wheel up through the peloton when required - timing his arrival at the front as moves happened, then he let momentum take him into them.

It was cat-like timing and precision, graceful even, but how did he do it? Van Petegem explained it to Cycle Sport magazine like this: “Something gets communicated to me at crucial moments of a race. I feel something, like something is about to happen in the peloton. I don’t know whether it’s just experience, but I don’t think it is because I’ve always raced this way. It’s difficult to explain, but I can sense something going on when the race changes from its build-up stage to its crucial stage, no matter when that moment is.”

Peter’s local knowledge and racing experience will add its own layer to the Cycling Legends Flanders Experience.

Russell is our resident pro. He’ll be part of the whole Flanders experience, on hand as ride guide and to chat with throughout. He’s one of the friendliest people to have ever ridden a bike. He also has massive experience as a racer, and had a highly successful career.

He’s not short of local knowledge either, having ridden the Tour of Flanders five times, and was winning races in Belgium as far back as 2002. Then still winning them ten years later.

Russ is one of the gutsiest riders we’ve ever seen. He simply could not be discounted from victory in any race at any level. A British road race champion, winner of the Tour of Ireland, as well as one of Belgium’s biggest races Druivenkoers Overijse, Russ got his long-awaited and much deserved crack at the World Tour with Team Sky in 2010 and 2011. He didn’t disappoint.

Downing was the first British Sky rider to win in the World Tour when he took stage 2 of the 2010 Critérium International. He also won the Tour de Wallonie, another Belgian race, that year.     

Russ carried on racing internationally after Team Sky, first with Endura Racing then NetApp-Endura then NFTO, and carried on winning. Finally stopping in 2017 after 20 years at the top, 20 years of victories and set-backs, stops and starts, and guts and glory.

Russell Downing is full-on with everything he does, he always was, and you couldn’t find a better ride guide, or a friend. We love ya Russ! We’re sure our guests will too after the Cycling Legends Flanders Experience.    

Chris Sidwells is a freelance journalist, author and historian with well over two decades experience working in cycling, and a lifetime involvement with the sport. He’s written thousands of articles for newspapers, magazines and websites all over the world, as well as 27 books on every aspect of cycling; many of which best selling in their genre.

He's also the nephew of the British cycling icon Tom Simpson - the only male British winner of the Tour of Flanders.

Chris has spent years understanding the area and its history. He's interviewed and spent time with most who have won in the area, and those that live in and love it.

No one has an address book like his with legends from cycling's history. Throughout the trip he'll tell you the untold stories of the region and the characters that made it, as well as inviting some special guests to join on the way.