When you move to the Netherlands and buy a bike (which you really should) you will soon become familiar with the phrase wind tegen. As a cyclist in the Netherlands it is inevitable that these two words will become every day vocabulary to you.
What is Wind Tegen?
First things first. Wind tegen means a head wind or wind against you.
And that is, of course, important if you favour the two wheels transportation mode.
Do you need to set off earlier than normal because you have wind tegen?
Or perhaps you have wind mee? A downwind. A wind that helps you on your way.
No, I’m messing with you. You’ll never have wind mee if you are a fietser in Nederland (cyclist in the Netherlands). It’s always wind tegen. Regardless of your direction of travel.
Dutch wind is an evil force, changing direction as you leave the house to ensure you have wind tegen.
Well at least you’ll have wind mee cycling home, you think, as you pedal your arse off getting to your destination. Wrong. By the time you have left to go home the wind has turned right around so you again have wind tegen.
Dutch Championship
Oh, and for those of you who are thinking I am making this whole wind tegen thing up I have news for you.
There’s a Nederlands Kampioenschap Tegenwindfietsen. A ‘Dutch cycling against the wind championship’. Sometimes blog fodder is just handed to you on a plate.
Anyway, it took place on Sunday just as the country was bracing itself for Storm Ciara. If you haven’t seen the footage then you should (link below). It is not playing in slow motion.
And it finished early because of….. heavy wind. https://t.co/IthKHUXQEz
— Turning Dutch 🇳🇱🇬🇧 (@AmandavMulligen) February 9, 2020
The best bit is that the ‘Dutch cycling against the wind championship’ (seriously, that’s a line I just had to write again) was stopped early. And why you ask. BECAUSE IT WAS TOO WINDY.
Storm Ciara
This particular storm has a lot of wind to answer for.
As advised by anyone who was anyone in the Netherlands on Sunday, we stayed home out of harms way as Storm Ciara raged and hurled a rabbit hutch (oh okay, mildly dislodged) and plant pots around our garden.
Monday my two youngest walked to school. My eldest got a ride to school as it was still pretty blowy. He usually has a 40 minute cycle to school but pity was taken.
Tuesday I had to cycle with my two boys and a classmate to a school in the next village two kilometers away. The storm will be over by then, I figured, and cycling will be fine.
Wrong.
It’s still blowing out there. In fact, I was awake at 5 a.m. because of the howling wind.
Rural Cycling
We live in a rural area. Lots of farmland and open pastures. The wind has free reign across a lot of the area. And that is evident whenever I cycle to the next village.
On the way there I have either a side wind or wind tegen. On the way back I have a side wind or wind tegen. And that’s only a few minutes later, after school drop off. When I go and collect the boys hours later I have a side wind or wind tegen. And when we head home together just minutes later we have a side wind or wind tegen.
Seriously, doesn’t matter which way I am going the wind is tegen. It hates me.
Heb Ik Wind Mee?
If you want to figure out how the wind will influence your bike journey then I am pleased to share with you that the the Dutch have just the website for you.
Head over to heb ik wind mee?
This was my journey this morning: a nice side wind to keep us on our toes. And I can assure you that at some points that side wind became a wind tegen.
At a certain point, sick of pedaling so hard, my 9 year old said: “Can’t we just walk? It would be quicker.”
And then he got off his bike and proved his point as he sailed past the rest of us who were pedaling with every ounce of energy we had left – and getting nowhere fast.
Over to You
How have you mastered always having wind tegen? Is the answer an e-bike?
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