March 1st. 2020

41,000 cyclists and walkers start new season in Utrecht

More than 41,000 sport and recreation enthusiasts visited the combination of the ‘Fiets en Wandelbeurs’, E-bike Xperience and Bike MOTION Benelux.

For a full three days in the Jaarbeurs Utrecht, there was a huge offering to be found of (sporting) bicycles, e-bikes, active holidays and outdoor equipment. Despite the growing news coverage of the Corona virus, it was a successful start to the cycling and walking season.

Theo Jorna, director of the Fiets en Wandelbeurs: "We are very satisfied about the attendance. We did notice that more ticket purchasers stayed at home than usual. But otherwise the visitors were very relaxed about the whole Corona virus issue."

Sanne van Heteren, Brand Manager Bike MOTION Benelux and E-bike Xperience at the Jaarbeurs: "We look back with the participants on three thriving events, where ten thousand test rides were made."

Theme Country Germany

Germany was the theme country at this year’s Fiets en Wandelbeurs. The nature reserves and the beautiful scenic routes in our eastern neighbour were well highlighted. In the lecture programme there was a separate room reserved for Germany. This was packed for the lecture on cycling alongside the German Danube by Robert van Weperen and ‘Cycling alongside German rivers to Prague’ by Jan Oude Hengel and Eveline Bremmer.

160 presentations

Many of the other lectures were popular too; often there were more people wishing to attend than there were chairs in the room. Walking blogger Bregje Schipper turned out to be a real draw with her account of the Camino Portugués. Tjerk Ridder was applauded for his theatre performance ‘Bonne Route’! And Bert Sitters hit the spot with ‘Cycling in France’, just as Jessica de Korte did, shedding a light on Cycling in Austria and Denmark (Baltic route).

Hicle Family

Visitors had a choice of no fewer than five information markets, where more than two hundred volunteers gave impartial advice about routes and equipment. And children could have fun during their tour of the Hicle Family Route, with activities like mountain biking, tilting at the ring on a bike and Cycle-your-painting.