About this site and cycling in The Netherlands.

Published at September 1, 2023

Hi. I my name is Andy and I live in The Netherlands. I do cycle here a lot. I also repair and upgrade my bicycles myself.

I decided to start this website and tell about my cycling-life, share some knowledge that I learned, links to the websites I like and maybe provide you with some online tools (I do programming for a living). I hope someone will find it interesting.

What to start with? Perhaps with the roads. It’s a common knowledge that they’re pretty straight and flat here. Sometimes there are literally tens of kilometres (and definitely miles) before the next turn.

We have dedicated long distance cycle paths across all the country. They physically separated from the car roads. This is very convenient and safe (totally unlike what I saw in England). Of course not everywhere, sometimes you need to share a road.

The country is almost all flat. Instead of terrain we have headwind. It’s can speed you up above 45 km/h or slow you down below 20. If one wants climbs, he needs go to a neighbouring country. Of course there is Southern Limburg with 1 or 2 climbs. Some terrain is also present on a specially prepared MTB-tracks, coastal or inland dunes or perhaps in Veluwe area near Arnhem. But it all joke. To get 300 m of climbing you have to ride 20km at least or repeat same hill multiple times.

This is one of my bikes. It’s my first road bike actually. usually people have several bikes here. One - for commuting to the train station, second - to do weekend trips, another one - to be left in misery somewhere in Amsterdam under the pouring rain (everybody saw those photos, I think).

Ah, yes, weekends! Every (especially sunny) weekend all year round cycle paths become packed with cyclists all kind of forms, shapes, body fat levels and bike types. For long distances, road bikes are the most popular things here of course. But there are also tourers, some gravel opportunities and e-bikes are getting increasingly popular in recent years.

For a road bike lovers its a perfect country (well, may be apart from those climbs). You can see anything from steel vintage to dream bikes worth more that other man’s cars.

To be honest, I’m not particularly fast cyclist. This is my only first years, but I find motivation and inspiration in overcoming my own laziness.

Because I think bicycle is a mean of making a world closer to you. It’s an exploration device. You get on a very different level of knowing the country and can be into places your never got walking or with another means of transportation.

With the bike you can recharge your batteries from the nature and the beauty around you. And feel this urge to ride, ride and ride on and on.

Thanks for reading and have a nice ride!