You celebrate life (and your holidays) with your senses
Hey, I'm Sander. Epicurean with all my senses. Crazy about cycling? That's an understatement - I'm idolised. If as a toddler I could choose between learning to walk or riding a bike - I would have chosen the latter.
After studying public administration, eight years of consultancy and a burn-out, I found out that life is not about an expensive lease car, fat job and a corner office. Life is about making a difference. With people, for people. Have I made my hobby my job? Absolutely. Cycling is my salvation - and I am convinced this is true for more people.
Always go the extra mile
If you know me a bit, you know I'm bursting with energy - and I put it to use every day to make people fans of cycling.
Luigi Ganna is my full-time inspiration
The name Ganna is derived from Luigi Ganna - the very first winner of the Giro d'Italia. Luigi was a handy guy, a hard worker and a huge go-getter. But above all, someone who tirelessly pursued his dreams. Coming from a working-class family and originally a bricklayer by trade, he chose to follow his own path - despite his parents' wishes to stay in agriculture. He decided to follow his own course - which led him to victory in the very first Giro d'Italia. How beautiful.
Following your own course as well as triumphing, that's what I do with Ganna
Achieving goals, but in your own way. Because Luigi Ganna won the Giro not because he was the fastest, but because he understood the (points) system best. He could pedal hard, but to win you need a strategy.
And in that, Luigi Ganna and I are incredibly similar.
Mad about cycling - not air cycling
I understand what government bodies need to get mileage. No show dinner with the mayor to put Cesenatico on the map - but a concrete and result-oriented plan on how to really get people cycling there. I feel an enormous responsibility to use public money in the right way and am sure I can achieve more with the same (marketing) budget.
Health is important - for me, for everyone
Until you turn 40, your body takes care of you; after you turn 40, you have to start taking care of your body. On LinkedIn, I write 'stories from the saddle'. About how I ignored my health for years - and what that brought about.
No sunshine and rainbows, but raw, honest stories with one mission: to make others realise that taking care of your body is top priority.
Also sander
- Speaks 6 languages: Dutch, English, German, Italian, Spanish and French
- Likes to help old ladies cross the road
- Talks a lot and laughs loudly. Drinks more coffee than Douwe Egberts.
- Has an allergy to "this is how we always do it" rather than "what works?
- Is highly sensitive: all senses are always on alert. Intense as a father of 2 young children - great when I am on top of the mountain peak on my racing bike.
- Likes to snack on pastel de nata with coffee during bike rides
- My best holiday ever was my press trip to Bolzano. First time in the Dolomites, first time cycling in Italy - now finally speaking the language. Everything came together: it felt like coming home. You can hardly explain the best holiday, you have to feel it.
Do we click better than a gear? There is only one way to find out.
