Foreword

KLAUS BONDAM
DIRECTOR, DANISH CYCLISTS’ FEDERATION

When I was a child, the best thing I knew was to cycle. I was a little chubby. I wasn’t very good at running or playing football. But, I could cycle. I rode like crazy. I could cycle fast and I could cycle far.

I grew up in the country, the youngest of five siblings. My parents were busy with work and our small farm. They didn’t have time to drive us here and there by car. In the mornings, I had to get to school by bike – summer and winter – through the woods until I got to the main road where the school bus would pick me up. If I wanted to go to the swimming pool in the next town or visit my friends, I had to hop on my bike as well.

I loved cycling when I was a child. The bicycle gave me a great sense of freedom and independence. I could cycle wherever I wanted. I could decide how fast I would go. I could stop when something caught my attention – an animal, a beautiful flower or something someone had dropped on the side of the road. Some of the most magical moments on my bicycle were when it started to rain and I had to seek shelter under a tree. It was fantastic to be out in the rain, protected from the drops underneath a tree. I also loved to cycle after I’d been swimming in the sea, the wind drying my blond hair. And I loved struggling through the snow on my bike. That made me feel like a real Viking child. And cycling in the wind; nothing feels as good as cycling with a tailwind, like a big, powerful, invisible hand on your back, pushing you along. If I had headwind on my way somewhere, I would look forward to having
tailwind on my way back.

When I ask other people about their childhoods and their first bicycles, it always makes them smile. Cycling makes people happy. It makes us happy when we are children. It makes us happy when we are adults. Through Cycling Without Age I have seen with my own eyes how cycling makes so many elderly people happy … once again.