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The other day, I pretended that I knew nothing about the Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR) gravel races and lobbed a question at ChatGPT:
“What makes the Belgian Waffle Ride unique?”
The Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR) is unique because it combines the challenging spirit of European road racing with the adventurous, rugged terrain of gravel riding, all wrapped in a distinctly Belgian-inspired theme. Here’s what makes it stand out: multi-terrain courses, distance and difficulty, European flavor and festive atmosphere, “Wafer” and “Wanna” rides, professional and amateur appeal, and multiple locations.
By blending competitive racing with a festive Belgian-inspired vibe, BWR has carved out a special niche in the gravel scene, making it a unique challenge for cyclists who love both road and gravel riding.
Then, I asked ‘Freddy Merckxury,’ a chatbot also found at ChatGPT, the same question. Here’s the answer he gave:
Ah, the Belgian Waffle Ride—it’s like your worst nightmare of a race mixed with a twisted love letter to cycling’s classic hell-rides. First, they take a “nice” long road race and lace it with an absolute mess of mixed surfaces: paved roads, gravel, dirt, sand, rocks, and cow paths. The only thing predictable about the route is the sheer unpredictability: you’re bouncing over kasseien one minute and skidding through a sandy pit the next. It’s designed to be what they call “unroad,” which means it’s definitively not a gravel race, and it sure as hell isn’t just a road race.
Add to this the atmosphere—a madhouse of top pros, weekend warriors, and a few lost souls trying to survive, all fueled by Belgian waffles and Lost Abbey beer at the start and finish. It’s a brutal event, designed to hurt, celebrating the duality of cycling: pain and pleasure, love and hate, camaraderie and suffering. And the scenery? Breathtaking, sure, but don’t get too comfortable; those hills, single tracks, and water crossings are lying in wait to chew you up and spit you out.
Because I actually know a lot about the Belgian Waffle Ride, I can say that the first answer was, if not slightly staid, correct. I also know Michael Marckx, the founder of BWR, and the second answer reeks of how he might reply if you emailed him, or if you read any of the information on the event’s website.
In fact, Freddy Merckxury is Marckx’s solution to not being able to respond to every single BWR question he gets in the manner he’d like to.
“We get emails from the website all the time, and usually all of the answers reside in our FAQ section but somehow people never make it there,” Marxkx said. “And you can’t always be in character. I’m always polite and happy to hear from people but sometimes I want to give them more.
“I figured, if I could create this character that’s part rock and roll and part Eddy Merckx and can answer any question they have but with the right attitude and flair and right amount of Flemish words then I was really on to something.”
“Freddy Merckxury is the AI you didn’t know you needed”
According to Marckx, “Freddy Merckxury is the AI you didn’t know you needed.”
And while he did create the chatbot to help redirect some of the participant inquiry from his email inbox to ChatGPT, he hopes that people engage with Freddy for more than just FAQs.
“I ‘Eddy-fied’ Freddy with as much info as possible about BWR, about gravel racing, about cycling, and then I issued a series of prompts to help guide his answers and how he answers,” Marckx said. “If you ask him something he’ll give you a somewhat curt answer to your inquiry with just the right flair. But if you say, ‘tell me more,’ he’ll go off.”
Marckx is the founder of the Belgian Waffle Ride series, but he is also a career marketing exec. For that reason, the Freddy Merckxury tool very much embodies the BWR brand. It’s part sarcastic tour guide, part diehard cycling fan, and part … Belgian?
Need advice on tire pressure? Freddy’s got thoughts. Want to know how many waffles it takes to power up a 120-mile day? He’s got a cheeky answer for that too. At least one word of anything he gives you will be in Flemish.
Freddy’s charm, though, isn’t just in knowing the stats and routes. It’s the personality — something that AI is not typically known for.
“We’re just trying to be more clever with our community and how we interact with them and how to use technology that’s available to better serve them,” Marckx said. “And to have more fun. We just want to have more fun because it’s become too serious.”
