A cyclist on the road

On this part of the website, you can find scientific information about cycling. The focus is mainly on the cyclist and much less on the bicycle. However, to understand the behaviour of the cyclist, it is necessary to to know a few things about the properties of a moving bicycle. After that, we will explain what knowledge from cognitive neuroscience is relevant for cycling. Cognitive neuroscience investigates the biological basis of behaviour. In this scientific discipline, behaviour is understood in terms of cognitive functions and emotions. In cycling, multiple cognitive functions (perceiving, moving, anticipating, learning, automatising) and one emotion (fear) play an important role.

The information on the “Knowing” part of this website is the inspiration for a set of exercises for improving one’s cycling skills. Practicing one’s cycling skills is especially important for the senior cyclist. This is not because senior cyclists completely unlearn cycling, but because their current cycling skills are no longer adapted to their changing body and the type of bicycle to which they switched (typically, a faster and heavier e-bike). Therefore, this website also gives a brief overview of how our body changes with age.

As with any website, it is good to also ask yourself if you can trust the content of this website? For that, it is essential to know more about the expertise and the objectives of the people who contributed to this website. On this page, you can find more information about this.

If you quickly want to be informed about the type of knowledge this website is about, then you can have a look at a part of the television broadcast Cyclists in danger that the Dutch national television made about this project (in Dutch only).