![]() In 2011, Cervélo’s achievements had gone way past my wildest dreams, but it had gotten too big for my liking. Which in turn led to the creation of Cervélo, where Phil White and I spent the better part of the next 15 years pushing bike design as far as we could. It also sparked my mechanical engineering graduation project, the design of an aerodynamic time trial bicycle (the Baracchi “green machine”). We got some coverage on CNN and I met Chet Kyle, who was the founder of the International HPV Association but also the designer of the 19 US Olympic bikes.Ĭhet was amazing and the designs so cool that it rekindled my interest for UCI legal bikes. In 1993 I organized a symposium and a contest for the "365-days-a-year bike". He finished 11th, not bad considering he didn’t pedal the last half of the distance as he was too busy struggling to keep the bike upright. Deciding who of us three would ride was easy only one of us had the balls to ride that death trap. We even participated in the 200m sprint at the European HPV Championships that year. Later that year we built what is still the world’s lowest (and quite possibly most dangerous) HPV with three friends. So I moved away from normal bikes and concentrated instead on HPVs.Īt 18, I built my first HPV (from an existing design). I loved these rockets that could go so much faster than normal bikes and I met Mike Burrows (big HPV guy and later also the designer of the Lotus superbike). Most of it was about growing your own carrots and building windmills, but there was also a display from the Dutch Human Powered Vehicle Association. When I was 14, the whole family went to an alternative lifestyle/renewable energy event. As we lived on the edge of the Dutch Grand Prix motocross track, we would spend countless hours riding there and fixing up our bikes (somehow kid’s bikes and city bikes don’t do well on jumps). With OPEN we can realize our visions without any of the compromises we had in our previous adventures.Īs a kid growing up in the Netherlands, riding a bike was a given. We are both very passionate about what we do and cycling is an integral part of our lives. I think we have an ideal combination of knowledge and network. We have completely different skill sets and that’s what fascinated me most about doing something together. ![]() Gerard is somebody I have great respect for. I still had this dream of building up my own company one day. I worked on some projects for other bike companies when one day my “former boss” Gerard called me up and told me about his little new project. I decided to leave the company not really knowing what I wanted to do next. I learned more about myself and where I wanted to go than in all the rest of my life.Īfter just riding my bike for a couple of months in a couple of exotic places in this world I started to work for Cervélo as their international sales director and that’s how I met Gerard.Īfter four years at Cervélo, I just felt that personally I had to make a change again. ![]() Looking at it right now, it was one of the best years in my life. It was a year full of changes both in business and my private life, which back then was quite tough. It became political, administrative and slow… I had to make a cut and let my baby go. After seven years of growing BMC from a small Swiss company to an international player, I started to realize that it was slowly becoming more like a job for me rather than a mission. Back then it did like USD 2.5 Million turnover and the loss was roughly the same amount…īut on the other hand I could build up a brand from scratch with all the freedom that I needed. On my first real working day I realized what I had done: This company was a complete mess. I took that job without even seeing the company and the people. ![]() My real cycling adventure started in 2001 when I became the CEO of BMC. ![]() After that I worked for Scott Europe for four years, in both sales and marketing positions. When I finished my studies, I moved to the Netherlands to work full-time for Cannondale Europe. As the business was growing rapidly we hired finally a real secretary and I started to work as a sales rep. Soon I started to work for them as a part-time secretary. As I was racing on a Cannondale and I loved the brand, I called them to say that I am not a secretary and that I cannot work full-time but I would love to work for them. Looking for a job, I saw an ad from Cannondale Switzerland looking for a full-time secretary. And that’s how I got into mountain bike racing.Ī few years later, I was studying at university and needed money. I was obsessed about volleyball but when I was 18 years old I had several injuries that forced me to stop playing. What brought me into the sport of cycling and into the cycling business was literally an accident (or better two). Cycling was always in my life but it was more a means of transportation to school and around town rather than really something I was interested in as a sports tool. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |