Riding Bikes Like a Circus Artist

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I guess the most of you are familiar with riding a bicycle. Some learned as a kid without the side wheels. Some kept riding as an adult while others never rode once older.

Myself, as a Dutch person, I grew up with cycling as a form of daily transportation. Only since a few years I started riding road bikes as a form of exercise.

My first road bike was a second hand steel-framed beast that I bought for 200 bucks. I took it for quite some rides until I was fully hooked. In 2018 my friends convinced me that it was a good idea to go on a bike tour through the Swiss Alps. It was quite a challenge for me with a mediocre condition, lack of training, a heavy and ill-geared bike (for the bike-guru, my lightest gear was a 38-25!). Although tough, it was such a great experience. Just you and the road, switchback after switchback with a view that slowly increases its sheer beauty. To give you an idea, here are some pick of the trip:

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Pretty quickly after the Swiss-trip I changed to a brand new light weight bike. And that is not where it ended. I was so lucky to be able to do many trips all over Europe to ride my bike. Austria, Germany Belgium, Norway, England, France and of course in my home country the Netherlands.

Here's a heat map of me rides near home :)

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But enough about my personal passion for cycling and the trips I did. Today I want to give the focus to cyclomaniac Matthieu van der Poel. Van der Poel, for those of you who do not know is one of the best all-round cyclists currently alive (at least that's what I believe). He won many famous races in both mountain biking, cyclocross, and on the road. Matthieu's father, Adri van der Poel and his grandfather Raymond Poulidor aka Poo-Poo are both famous cyclist themselves. His dad gave him a very good foundation to get him to the insane level he is riding now.

Ok, I think it is clear that I'm a bit of a van der Poel fan. But here you can see a video with all the amazing things he does on a bike. His bike handling is out of this world!


Do you have someone that is an inspiration to you?



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