Biking in Amsterdam - No One Sweats

Bikes parked along a canal in Amsterdam

Wow, I loved this article posted on Yahoo yesterday via the Associated Press!

AMSTERDAM – Nearly everyone in Amsterdam rides a bicycle.

No one sweats.

As a longtime cyclist in New York City, and a sweaty guy who can raise a few droplets going to the end of the walk to retrieve the newspaper in January, that's how it seemed to me when I was there. I was prepared for the ubiquity of cyclists. But the refinement was a surprise.

Who knew that urban cycling — which I find mostly exhilarating and joyous, but occasionally a grim struggle for a sliver of pavement — could also be elegant?

This is how I saw the Dutch cyclists.

I ride to news assignments, sometimes in jacket and tie, feeling overdressed. I saw well-dressed men riding to work in Amsterdam, and they didn't seem remotely uncomfortable.

And the women! Granted that riding a bike is like playing the cello — one of those things that makes men look dorky and women look hot — but women bikers in Amsterdam seem to cut no fashion corners. High heels and skirts are not uncommon, whether they are headed to the office or carting a crateful of kids to school on one of those cargo bikes with a big box up front.

Part of staying fashionable is that no one wears a helmet. Not the riders; not the kids sitting up front or on the luggage rack. Either cycling is extraordinarily safe in Amsterdam or the lawyers aren't in charge yet.

I came back to New York determined to apply the lessons of Amsterdam cycling to my own life. Some I couldn't. The helmet, for instance is non-negotiable. But could I ride elegantly in an aggressive city like New York?

Mainly, it meant slowing down. This is harder than it sounds. New York moves faster than Amsterdam. Plus the bikes we ride here were mostly built to race on the road, in the mountains or on a track.

There's more....

I'm going to have to try to a bit harder to live up to this image! 

Astrid