Please introduce yourself. Who are you, where are you from, what do you do?

I’m Lukas, 37 years old, and have lived in Cologne for the best part of the last 20 years. I’m the owner of a small data protection consulting company and a weekend-warrior bike racer for NSF Racing.

When and how did you get into cycling?

I’m a real covid bike baby: I borrowed a road bike in 2021 and had two friends, who already were cycling for a while at that time, spank my sorry ass on every climb. When I finally made my way to the top, they were waiting, making fun of me.

I asked them to stop and threatened that if they didn’t, I’d start training to kick their butts. Well. They didn’t stop. So I went home, bought a smart trainer and a training plan, invested around 700 hours a year and way too much money into cycling, lost almost all of my social life and every single gram of muscle I’ve ever had. I became miserable and elitist, crashed a lot in racing, and almost died descending… But: I’m now faster than them! So who’s laughing now, Gino?!

"I have made friends for life and maybe some foes as well. I was humbled. A lot."

Lukas' favorites

Why do you bike? What does it mean to you?

I don’t really know. If I’m being honest, cycling has been an ever-evolving endeavor over the past few years. I’ve found myself in a vast array of situations and feelings whilst on the bike. I’ve found myself crying in pain in the last few hours of an ultra cycling event where I didn’t sleep for almost three days.

I have had incredible adrenaline rushes, going into the last corner of crits. I’ve hated group rides, I’ve loved them. I have guided some and learned how to watch out for weaker cyclists. I went through a severe eating disorder on my way to gain something on my w/kg numbers. I have made friends for life and maybe some foes as well. I was humbled. A lot

I’ve grown as a man over the past few years, and I think cycling has played an important part in that. This year, I stopped racing. I only ride when I feel like it. I go as hard or as easy as I want to. I’m 37 now, and I wonder whether I've lost my competitive edge and if cycling will still be a thing for me in the years to come. We’ll see. 

Describe a perfect day on the bike. 

What I love about cycling is that there are so many different versions of a perfect day out. I love a long weekend ride with good friends, I love to lock horns with younger and faster kids in corners, I love a session where I hit perfect intervals, or the feeling when I realize mid-interval that I’ve reached a new level.

I love being out alone in the Nörvenich headwinds, I love to ride with friends, talk smack, and eat falafel after. I love to grind in 5 degrees and rain, while everybody else is too lazy to train. I love long summer days and meeting everybody and their moms on those days that are just perfect for a ride. 

I love the days when I’m too tired to train and when I spend a whole Saturday sitting around in cafés or day drinking somewhere with friends, talking smack about how we did this and that on our bikes. Cycling is just really good fun most of the time, and it’s a great teacher when it is not.

What’s your favorite memory on a bike?

I have joined one ultra event. It may have been the single hardest thing I’ve done so far in my life, and I think (I know it sounds a tad dramatic) it has been life-changing for me. Part of my Strava caption read like this, and I think it still captures how I felt:

“I've been at war with my body for most of my life. Too small, not strong enough, not disciplined enough, too big for climbing, tiny on basketball courts. I've put my body through a lot – suffering while dieting, suffering in training, suffering in front of mirrors, hearing my not-so-polite thoughts about it.

I've never put my body through something like this before, though. I've got blood-stained socks and chamois, my left pinky is numb, my right ankle swollen, I can't bend my knees, and my skin feels as if I've been in a bathtub for the last 50 hours.

And still – no hatred for my body this time. Just fucking proud it went when I asked it to. Back up to cp2, through the headwinds and rain showers, over cobbles, up the climbs, down wet descents. Through the Belgian nights and back to Utrecht.

I'm fucking tired, but I feel at peace with myself.”

"Cycling is not forever, but friends might just be."

What does your pre- and post-ride routine look like?

I eat. A lot. That’s about it.

What’s in your back pockets when you go for a ride? And is there anything you absolutely can’t leave without?

Spares, food (usually some gels or Katjes. On some extra special days, someone gifts me a Snelle Jelle). My AirPods and from time to time a JBL, if I want to play music for the people I ride with.

Describe your very first bike.

It was a pain in the ass – some generic frame, 9 speed, 54/39 and a cassette that ended at 23 or something. Broke my knees, broke my spirits, the shifting barely worked, it was too small, and I had a flat every other ride or so.

Describe your current bike(s).

I went down the Oscar Wilde “I have the simplest tastes...” road and bought basically every dream bike that there was for me. I think it is important to add, though, that I’m a 35+ years old man with no family who is okay at doing business and has never had to struggle financially.

In cycling, there is a weird normalization process going on regarding the super expensive lifestyle: the PNS Kit for 500 bucks, the bike for 10k+, the fifth pair of Oakleys, the Nimbl Shoes, and the 15 Euro specialty Coffee hang after every ride. Sometimes I wonder how university students or people working in junior jobs can afford all that. And I feel that we as a cycling community should make cheap shit cool again and stop pressuring people into buying stuff they can’t afford.

Having said all that, I currently ride a Dogma F on Princeton wheels with Dura Ace when the weather is good, and I race an Ostron Vam on Hunt wheels and Ultegra. Ah, and I do have a Standert Gravel Bike that I use to ride to a coffee shop once in a while. I like those bikes a lot, but I had some of my best rides ever on an old Merida Scultura with aluminium wheels that I currently use on my trainer at home.

"I’ve reached milestones that seemed to be absolutely delulu at the beginning of my cycling journey, and I’m glad I still tried hard to reach them."

Do you currently have a goal you want to achieve?

Once I really got into cycling, I drafted myself a little bucket list. One thing that still might be achievable is beating an old friend in a bike race (he’s kicking ass at the moment, though, and I’m not racing, but the day might come). And one thing that's very much forever going to be a box unticked: 5 min at 500 watts.

Everything else I ever wanted to do, cycling-wise, is done. I’ve reached milestones that seemed to be absolutely delulu at the beginning of my cycling journey, and I’m glad I still tried hard to reach them. It might sound cheesy, but right now my only goal in cycling is to use it as a means to be a happy person. It probably doesn’t sound like much, but for me, it takes a bit of effort.

Lukas' Playlist 

Instagram    |    Contact

THE LOCALS