Chasing roads and horizons, thoughts between pedal strokes
I am Dutch, so I have cycled all my life. As a child it was the way to explore and seek adventure. That never really changed.
There are always reasons to leave the bike in the garage. I came back to cycling seriously during my years at ING Bank — as meditation more than exercise — and never stopped. Since then the road has taken me to the Stelvio, Mont Ventoux, the Balkans, Kazakhstan, and beyond. Every ride brings new scenery, new challenges, and new encounters.
Cycling sharpens the mind in a way that boardrooms rarely do. That is what the road teaches you that the boardroom cannot.
Yerevan is the capital of Armenia. The first time I heard the name was when a journalist was reporting about the war involving Iran. Later, I realised that it made sense for Armenia to be so close to Iran, yet not actually be part of Iran. Armenia has four international borders, of which two are …
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Today, July 13, marks exactly one month since I cycled in Srebrenica — a small village in the southeast of Bosnia & Herzegovina, near the Drina River that forms the border with Serbia. It’s also exactly 30 years since the Dutch UN battalion, Dutchbat, was forced by Serb forces to hand over the …
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After two years cycling in the Dolomites, I missed last years’ tour in the Pyrenees due to a bad fall in Goa. That had caused my family a lot of stress and me a lot of frustration of not being allowed to cycle by my doctor. The reason of my fall became never clear. I am still alive due to quick …
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Why do you show up even when it’s hard? That was the title of a recent Strava post trying to explain the atlete in you. Reflecting on challenging events is important to moving forward. On the Italian border A couple of weeks ago, I had again joined the Tour de Tolerance, a group of cyclists …
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I had heard of the Madonna but never of Madonna del Ghisallo. The little chapel in her honour sits atop a steep hill (532m elevation, 10.6km, avg 5.2%, max 11%) that climbs up from the shores of Lake Como. It had been such a stopping point for cyclists that the local priest had proposed that Madonna …
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