{"id":490566,"date":"2026-02-21T19:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490566\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T19:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:44:08","slug":"we-took-part-in-the-world-championship-pancake-eating-victor-put-away-17-how-campenaerts-once-risked-diabetes-with-insane-eating-chal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490566\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe took part in the \u2018World Championship Pancake Eating\u2019&#8230; Victor put away 17\u201d \u2013 How Campenaerts once \u2018risked diabetes\u2019 with insane eating challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>It started innocently enough. The group had discovered a caf\u00e9 in Torhout offering unlimited pancakes and a coffee for \u20ac5.50. For most customers, that deal was safe. Three pancakes, maybe five at a push, and the owner would still come out ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Professional cyclists, however, do not think like most customers.<\/p>\n<p>Seventeen pancakes and counting<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the beginning, it was Victor\u2019s idea,\u201d Declercq explained. \u201cWe said, \u2018We\u2019re going there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The caf\u00e9 owner had not factored in the caloric demands, or competitive instincts, of a group of elite endurance athletes. The pancakes were large, Declercq stressed, not dainty caf\u00e9 portions. \u201cMost people would eat three to five. With that, he could make his money back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Campenaerts did not stop at five. \u201cI think Victor put away seventeen or nineteen pancakes,\u201d Declercq revealed. \u201cFinancially, it probably wasn\u2019t the best day of that man\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The number alone is absurd. Even in a sport where riders routinely burn thousands of calories in a single training ride, seventeen full-sized pancakes in one sitting pushes into the realm of folklore.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/victor-campenaerts-6996f91f29095.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"Victor Campenaerts on stage 1 of the 2026 Vuelta a Andalucia\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Campenaerts is currently riding for Visma in Andalucia<\/p>\n<p>Everything becomes competitive<\/p>\n<p>The episode did not remain a one-off. A year later, the unofficial \u201cWorld Championship Pancake Eating\u201d was staged again. By then, the group had decided it might be wise not to return to the same caf\u00e9. \u201cWe didn\u2019t dare go back,\u201d Declercq admitted. The second edition was hosted at Van Lerberghe\u2019s house, coinciding with his birthday.<\/p>\n<p>And, true to cycling culture, it was no longer just about eating. It was about winning. \u201cThe first time I wasn\u2019t that good,\u201d Declercq said. \u201cBut the year after, I made the podium with fifteen. With us, everything has to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That line perhaps explains more than the pancake count itself. Campenaerts\u2019 17 \u2013 or possibly 19 \u2013 was not merely hunger. It was the same mentality that drives riders to chase marginal gains, repeat intervals deep into fatigue, or attack when logic suggests restraint.<\/p>\n<p>For Declercq and his friends, the \u201cWorld Championship\u201d may have been tongue-in-cheek. But the instinct underneath it was not.<\/p>\n<p>Campenaerts has long been known as one of the peloton\u2019s most obsessive trainers, a rider willing to experiment, endure and stretch limits in pursuit of performance. In Torhout, that instinct simply found a different outlet.<\/p>\n<p>The caf\u00e9 owner might not have anticipated it. But anyone who has watched Campenaerts race probably should have.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; It started innocently enough. The group had discovered a caf\u00e9 in Torhout offering unlimited pancakes and a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[197143,49,48,635,82,197145,197144,58620,168094],"class_list":["post-490566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-bert-van-lerberghe","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-stijn-steels","tag-tim-declercq","tag-victor-campenaerts","tag-yves-lampaert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}