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THE Netherlands and Dirt

The fact that there are little to none good training platforms in the Netherlands in terms of dirt and slopestyle, motivates me to change that. The Netherlands is the country I represent and that is something I am very proud of.

The Netherlands is a bicycle country. If you ask someone what the first thing is that comes to their mind when you mention “the Netherlands”, then a large portion will say that “cycling” will be one of those things.

Especially youngsters, students and elderly people in large cities use a bicycle to move from A to B, but why is my kind of cycling (freestyle MTB) spite this, yet still so unknown in the Netherlands?

With cycle racing, every year the streets of mayor cities are cordoned off and a large part of the population gets attracted to come and watch. BMX racing also plays a big role in our country and is already an official Olympic sport since 2008.  But where are the dirt spots and parks in this story? Why is there so much attention for those sports and not for MTB? Of course there are a couple of them in the Netherlands, but there is little to none regard for.

My plan

No one has previously taken the trouble to make dirt and slopestyle big and known in the Netherlands. It has potential! Cycling is in our blood. I want to be the one who is going to bring change in this all. I do not only want to represent the Netherlands, but also want to ensure that the Netherlands is going to be part of this sport. I want to motivate the next upcoming generations. I want to encourage them and make this sport better known.

As I have previously indicated, since 2008 BMX racing became part of the Olympic Games. In 2016 they had announced that both skateboarding and surfing, just like Freestyle BMX-park became part of the Olympic Games in 2020. The question is; When is it the turn for Freestyle mountain biking?

I see a future where the Netherlands is participating in the Olympics, not only in the category Freestyle BMX, but also MTB, represented by the new generation motivated MTB’ers.