It all started when Thijs moved to Melbourne 4 years ago on his way to work. On his commute he came across 20 sets of lights, so he thought, 'I can just wait here and be frustrated or I can try to make use of the time', so he started practising his track stands. “It’s been 4 years of daily practice”.

Originally from

Thjs moved across from the Netherlands and is finding our bike culture changing for the better. For Thjis it's more about getting from A to B, riding to work or to the shops, in fact, he rides everywhere. Being Dutch there is really no other alternative to get to work.

The daily commute

Since moving from the Netherlands it’s been a nice cruise to his work at Parkville from Southbank. To take a car would take twice as long so there is absolutely no point.

And a car?

Thijs also owns a car but tends to use it only on weekends to get out of town or to take his bike somewhere to ride, for example the Yarra Valley or Mornington Peninsula.

Wet weather

Coming from Northern Europe, I pack my rain gear even though the forecast isn’t for rain. "Usually I pack a rain jacket and a pair of rain legs which are really great stuff."

However over the year, from my experience, there are only a few days in the year when you do get wet during your commute. Having flexible working hours helps to avoid the heavy down pours.

Occasionally you get wet but it’s a good way to freshen up (laughing).

Riding for sport

Thijs also owns a mountain and road bike which he tries to ride on the weekends and get in 150kms or so.

The difference to Beach Rd

In the Netherlands there are more places to ride so a lot of the bunches tend to spread out a lot more.

Most of the major roads/highways have separated lanes for the bicycles, so if there is no path it means it’s a local/rural road with hardly any traffic, so it makes a more relaxed experience.

So you don’t have to get up very early to miss the weekday traffic, you can have a night out, sleep in and in the afternoon you can decide to head out for an hour or 2 without too many issues.

So the early morning rising culture does not exist in the Netherlands, you don’t see anyone at 7am. Nobody gets up before 8:00am, they all get a sleep in.

In the Neterlands, over the past 5 - 10 years a lot of people have started to ride for sports and doing those big rides. In Victoria its not flat like home so you have plenty of hills.

Last word about commuting

Thijs's final comments: "Why wait to start commuting, go ahead and do it, there are so many benefits. You don’t need to dress up if you don’t live too far out, say 5 - 6kms and ride at a relatively easy pace.

Get yourself a bike and figure out a good route and try some variations so you get to enjoy different scenery and throw in some tracks stands, using the traffic lights to your advantage."

Thijs van der Heijden operates E-stralian, offering e-bike leasing packages.  www.e-stralian.com.au