I was worried that afternoon about an ill family member, and as I stared at her gnarled trunk, I thought of all this tree has survived. I watched the light filter through her canopy and listened to a squirrel chatter on a branch. And I felt better.

When all of Belgium tunes in to watch the Tour of Flanders bicycle race, Pieter De Frenne watches the trees.

They’re only on screen for as long as it takes the peloton to whiz by, but it’s enough for De Frenne to recognize them, log them, and gather a tiny insight into how the planet is changing. That’s because De Frenne is a pro cyclist in his dreams and a pro botanist in real life. And along with a team from the University of Ghent, he figured out that somewhere in Belgium’s annual festival of sore legs, cobbled hills and heady beers, there was climate science to be done.