Women riding in the Netherlands?

[VenusdeVelo]

Hi...I'm an expat recently relocated to Amsterdam area. I SO miss my women's bike club I had when I lived in the Midwest. Great rides, great convservation, great ice cream ;-)

Wondering if there are any female riders around Amsterdam area (I live in Haarlem) who also long for fun group rides...

[ccrannell]

I too just moved here and am looking plan my triathlon season this year. I have done a few triathlons in the states like the Danskin in Pleasant Prairie, The Waconda Triathlon, and Lake Gevena Triathlon.. I am having a difficult time finding races to do over here in Europe. I would be willing to travel to France, Itlay or Germany even. I did find the one web site called "Trimapper.com" which is a great, but many of these races look like they are for "serious or professional Triathloners". Any ideas of races over here in Europe for me that I could do?

[VenusdeVelo]

Hi,
Well I was in NL a little over 2 yrs, and just moved back last year! I still was never able to find a women's riding group -- we actually started doing quite a bit of MTB there believe it or not. What's worse in NL cycling is huge, but more as a form of transport above all. If you get out on places like the Ringvaart and such though you'll find lots of true roadies.

But you are correct, organized events -- whether they are amateur tris, dus, or even charity stuff is fairly non-existent. That's why most the stuff you see looks like it is more on the professional level. You can find a few more running events, but they are non-existent when you compare them to what we have in the states. I had once come across a website (I can't recall it now) that was related to the people who do the chip timing and they had a searchable website which showed more of the amateur racing events across Europe....but I cannot remember what site it was.

How's living over there for you?

[Mimosa]

Hehe so you did the 'rondje ringvaart' ;) :D

But you are correct there isn't much charity rides over here. There are a lot of touring rides and clubs.

Triathlon ... mhhhh ... lemme see.

I googled a bit and found this website (it's in dutch)

National triathlon rides (both pro and just for fun)
http://www.triathlonweb.nl/twn/show.php?chapter=Wedstrijdinfo&ID=183007

International triathlon rides (pro stuff):
http://www.triathlonweb.nl/twn/show.php?chapter=Wedstrijdinfo&ID=183007 (http://www.triathlonweb.nl/twn/show.php?chapter=Kalender&ID=kalint2007)

[VenusdeVelo]

Where were you "dutch" riding girls when I lived there ;-) ?

I think the issue for me with the touring groups is they were primarily male, and primarily dutch. And altho I learned to speak some dutch, I never found it comfortable to "force" anyone or a group to have to speak to me in English. My job was all English/Int'l so my dutch was limited to carrying on transactions at the market...at Etos, Albert Heijn ;-) He he That brings back memories.

I lived in Haarlem, it was a great city! The Ringvaart was easy to get to and ride. And 15 miles in, there was a very nice Italian-dutch man (I speak some italian) who sold gelato...so it was great incentive to go another 15-20 after that...

We started to enjoy some mtn biking too (I think it was in Alkmaar, etc. by the dunes) and they were nice respites from the city. SANDY riding though!! When it was dry out (not that it often was!!) that course was tough.

Mimosa, you'll laugh, when Albert Heijn had their grand opening in Haarlem they were giving away those really nice bright orange plastic "ah" shopping bags -- we ended up with about 6 of them, and we shop here with them at the store!! People always ask ... "where are those from...." :p

[VenusdeVelo]

Violette, also try going to www.expatica.com, to the NL site, and see if you can query on the forum boards and ask expats if they know of any....

[Mimosa]

I work in Haarlem and live in the Haarlemmermeer so I know what you are talking about ;)

And still the main problem is indeed finding the womens groups around here. There is a club on the north side of Amsterdam which has a fair number of cat. 3 women (so I'll probably join them). And there are three womens roadbike trainings group, one has their meeting point at the east side of amsterdam, the other group at the east side of Amstelveen and the last one is further away at the north east side of Utrecht. But there are less then 500 women in the netherlands who have a competition license and most of them live in the south or east of the country.

And AH does make nice shopping bags, they also now have bags with a hamster on it.

[VenusdeVelo]

That's great you've found some groups...a little further to go, but it's a start.

The hamster, that's really funny. It's funny to an American at least, to see a hamster face on a shopping bag, it was almost like they were advertising "hamsters as food". We had that question posed to us when we had some family visit us in NL!!

I thought the hamster was a really funny campaign ;-)