Bicycle Network Victoria: Bupa Around the Bay

Bicycle Network Victoria and Bupa Around the Bay would like to announce this year's Bupa Around the Bay Ambassador, Mr Andy van Bergen.

The search commenced in July and after assessing your nominations Andy's enthusiasm and dedication to his Bupa Around the Bay team shone through.

Andy's Profile 

Andy's Tips

Those who are the best at convincing workmates to give the Bupa Around the Bay a go are the ones who did it for the first time last year.
When they describe the enjoyment and sense of achievement from doing the 50km for the first time, others feel inspired to give it a shot.

Andy's Tip #1 Word of mouth rallies the troops! 

In regards to recruiting a team for Bupa Around the Bay in a Day, I have found that word of mouth is one of the most effective methods, so you really need to look for opportunities to create it. Often friends within your company will both join if they know the other is participating, so try to get the more likely / eager riders from a group signed up first, then have them help you convert the others! This is particularly effective if someone in that group has taken part previously... There are always some good stories to share!

Andy's Tip #2 Fundraising through your corporate network

I'll share some tips separately on how individuals can fundraise, but a good way to get some runs on the board early on is to send a message out via your corporate network - whether that is sister locations in other states, your management team, or even your suppliers. A letter is great, but if you can include some other information - like the total amount of km's the team will ride, the amount of riders, the team's history with the event, or even some photos of the team training it can have a bigger impact.

Andy's Tip #3 Preparing for the event

With Bupa Around the Bay in a Day less than two weeks away it is important to get your mind out of training, and to start focusing on the actual event. There are some fantastic tips on nutrition available on the web, through the Bicycle Network Victoria website, and of course from talking with fellow cyclists – so I won’t talk about the infamous ‘carb load’.

For myself, the lead up to any event is always equal parts training, nutrition, and mental preparation. The first two are surprisingly easy to control, it’s the mental preparation that can often provide the biggest challenge. I like to get my mind around any big upcoming ride by ‘chunking it down’. Imagine the sections of the ride that you will be heading through, particularly if you have ridden them before, otherwise looking through the map and course profile will also help. Most of you will have ridden parts of the ride in your training – and this will really help you break the ride down into achievable blocks. Then, when you are on the actual ride you will have landmarks to aim for – rather than looking at your bike computer and seeing how far you still have to go! By ‘chunking down’ the ride you can tick off mini goals throughout the ride, rather than trying to focus on the full distance.

Best of luck with the final lead up to this fantastic event, don’t try and make up for any lost training, get ready for the carb load, and don’t forget to think your way through the upcoming challenge.

Best of luck!
 

Andy van Bergen

2011 Bupa Around the Bay Ambassador

Andy van Bergen, 31, loves riding, and the marketing manager uses all his professional skills to pass his passion on to fellow workmates. His infectious enthusiasm is so engaging that this year, about 70 riders from his workplace will take part in Bupa Around the Bay.

A fan of all sports, Andy was more into trail running as a young adult, but one day, while on a hill run near a road, he saw a bike rider out of the saddle, powering upwards, and Andy had a conversion moment. “I knew then that that is what I wanted to do,” he says. “I could get all the enjoyment I was getting in being in the hills, all the exercise and fresh air, but I could go so much further and see so much more on a bike.”

His next step was entering the 50km Around the Bay route with a mate, on a whim, on the day of the event itself. “I managed okay, on a mountain bike, and remember vividly the thrill of coming down the West Gate Bridge,” says Andy. The experience helped him get the confidence to start riding to work, and his passion grew.

Having now progressed to the 210km Bupa Around the Bay route, these days Andy gets great satisfaction in encouraging others to get into riding. But he finds that there are better ambassadors than himself to get the message across.

“Those who are the best at convincing workmates to give the Bupa Around the Bay a go are the ones who did it for the first time last year,” he says. “When they describe the enjoyment and sense of achievement from doing the 50km for the first time, others feel inspired to give it a shot.”

Andy is full of praise for his bosses and the encouragement they have given him to spend the time helping to organise a team for the event. “They’ve been terrific. They really appreciate the great benefits in the workplace from the boosted health, fitness, self-belief and camaraderie among the staff from taking part.”

Hill riding remains a favourite past-time for Andy; so much so, that during the three weeks of this year’s Tour de France he set himself the task of riding the same vertical metres (21,500) as the professionals. “I took on the challenge with my riding buddies; my uncle, John, and my cousin, Shane,” explained Andy. “In between late nights watching the Tour action, early morning and evening hill rides, and riding to and from work, it was a pretty exhausting, but satisfying time.”

In their ‘bike room’ in their house in Ivanhoe, Andy and his wife, Tammy, care for three bikes each. Tammy only got into riding about 18 months ago, but now loves it, and luckily shares Andy’s fondness for hills.

As well as his commute, spin classes, other mid-week training rides, Saturday mornings on Beach Road, and Sundays in the hills, Andy and his crew (John and Shane) set themselves many challenges. For instance, they rode the Three Peaks alpine course, then rode it in reverse, before finishing at Mount Buffalo – a total distance of over 500km, with more than 10,000 vertical metres – over two days.

“It is the setting of a target well beyond what we’ve ever attempted before that’s the compelling thing about our challenges!” says Andy. “If everyone could just go out and do it without training then it wouldn’t give the same sense of achievement.”

But that doesn’t mean you have to be anything like a super-athlete to take part in the Bupa Around the Bay ride, he says.

“Workmates of all shapes and sizes and levels of fitness commit to the ride. And this year we decided, during winter, rather than have training outside in the wet and cold, we would have a weekly spin class instead. That has been a great success, and has helped boost fitness levels.

“Through experience we tell people that all they have to aim for is being able to do a ride of about 60% of the distance they will do on the day, at least once about two weeks before the event, and then they will be able to cope fine.

“I do a lot of riding, but I wouldn’t expect others to want to do the same. I have been urged to join clubs and compete in bike races, but I’m not interested in that side of it – I like taking on and sharing a challenge, and I think I’ve got the right formula that suits me.”