Algemeen Staff Stories - mechanic Krist Devisch: "It's my last week in cycling, but I'll always keep going to the races."
When the riders cross the finish line in Vernier on Sunday, just a stone's throw from Lake Geneva, Krist Devisch will begin his very last hours tinkering and scrubbing the Orbea bikes of the team. Krist is retiring and farebidding well to Lotto Dstny after the Tour de Romandie this week. "A dark space? They already asked me to come along as a volunteer for La Vuelta Feminina, but my wife has planned a surprise weekend getaway. Of course, she's happy that I'll be home more again," says Krist.
For over 20 years, Krist traveled with the peloton. First with Collstrop-Cras, then with Unibet, Topsport Vlaanderen, Quick-Step, and for the past five years with Lotto Dstny. "I stumbled into cycling by chance when I was working as a technician at Collstrop, which was a very active sponsor in cycling at the time. During the spring classics, the Collstrop-Cras riders came to change clothes in our company, and that's how I got to know the team and its staff. During that period, I was already attending the cycling school in Ronse. I was a recreational cyclist, and when I went to my bike shop because my headset was loose — I didn't even know what a headset was at the time (laughs) — I thought: I can do that too. I took some courses, and not long after, I got a call from the mechanic of Collstrop-Cras asking if I could build wheels. At that time, it was all done manually. And there you have it, that's how it happened."
No GPS and Whatsapp
During all that time, Krist still worked full-time at Collstrop. His overtime, vacation days, and weekends were spent on the road. "The first time, I was away from home for 19 days straight, at the Tour of Bessèges. GPS and WhatsApp didn't exist back then. We navigated with a map on the hood of the car. If my wife wanted to reach me, she had to call the hotel's landline, which then forwarded her call to my room. Sometimes I still wonder how we managed it all, how we found our way everywhere."
Only in the last five years has Krist fully immersed himself in cycling. "In the meantime, I had become a purchaser at another company, with stricter vacation days, and I missed cycling so much from behind my desk. The children were older, so I wanted to give it my all for another five years before retiring. And so, five years ago, on January 1, 2019, I started at Lotto."
"Since then, I've been away from home for 200 days a year. Cycling is my second home. My grandfather was already a big cycling fan, my uncle went along as a soigneur, my grandparents ran De Sportwereld café in Koolskamp... It was always about cycling, everywhere and always. It's the atmosphere, the camaraderie of cycling that attracts me so much. Today, a team has become a small business, but in the past, it was a family. And the freedom. You go to places where others don't. You won't find a job like this anywhere else."
Arnaud and Bjorg
After 20 years, Krist has a backpack full of stories and memories. Geert Omloop's Belgian title is one, and the Giro where Bob Jungels won the white jersey and Fernando Gaviria won the purple jersey is another highlight. "Not to mention Arnaud De Lie's first WorldTour victory, last year in Canada. That was beautiful... But one thing will always be etched in my memory, and that's the death of Bjorg Lambrecht (silence). I was there when Bjorg lost his life in the Tour of Poland in 2019. You never forget something like that."
He's still eagerly searching for a date to raise a glass to his retirement — "the cycling calendar is so full nowadays, when am I supposed to do that? (laughs)" — but Krist isn't afraid of sitting at home with an empty schedule himself. "My daughter is an avid equestrian, now I can go with her. I also want to cycle a lot myself, enjoy life. And I'll always keep going to the races, that's for sure."
Pictures: Brecht Steenhouwer