He's from Wallonia. Pretty rare to have a cyclist from there, let alone a cyclocrosser.
The late
https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/patrick-gaudy/start was from there aswell. Always had a soft spot for him since he reminded me of Gaudi.
It's all relative. If Wallonia was a French region, it would be regarded as a strong cycling region. Comparing top-200 ranked riders in PCS by place of birth. Wallonia compares favourably with all French regions.
4
Wallonia (Gilbert, Criquielion, J-L Vandenbroucke, F Vandenbroucke)
Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Poulidor, Darrigade, Chavanel, Duclos-Lassalle)
3
Ile-De-France (Fignon, Leducq, Pelissier)
2
Bretagne (Hinault, Bobet)
Occitanie (Jalabert, Garrigou)
Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes (Mottet, Magne)
Haute-de-France (Demare, Stablinski)
Bourgogne-France-Comte (Thevenet, Pinot)
Grand-Est (Bouhanni, Voeckler)
1
Centre-Val de Loire (Alaphilippe)
Normandie (Anquetil)
On the other hand, as part of Belgium, they don't look too strong
32
Flanders (Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Van Looy, Maertens, Boonen, Van Springel, Museeuw, Godefroot, Verbeeck, Van Steenbergen, Van Avermaet, Vanderaerden, van Aert, Evenepoel, E Planckaert, Van Impe, Pollentier, MvdP, Ockers, Schotte, L Peeters, Impanis, Van Linden, Sercu, Reybrouck, S Bennett, De Bruyne, Wiggins, Wellens, de Wolf, Willems, Steels)
4
Wallonia (Gilbert, Criquielion, J-L Vandenbroucke**, F Vandenbroucke)
1
Brussels (Thys)
** Technically, Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke was born in Flanders. His place of birth, Mouscron, was transferred to Wallonia when he was around 8 years old.