It is a special moment because Velosolutions Benelux exists 10 years! A milestone that we cannot simply pass by. We asked our director Tim a number of questions, because how did it all start?
It has sometimes been different than now, nowadays the Velosolutions PumpTracks are springing up like mushrooms, but the road to this has not been easy. About 10-12 years ago Tim was in the rut of an office job, he didn't feel 100% comfortable with this, but cycling made his heart beat faster. At the time, Tim himself actively participated in mountain bike competitions and he could often be found at cycling club Het Stadion. Tim decided to organize cycling clinics as a hobby during the weekend.
The entrepreneurial heart and the cyclist's heart were stimulated and in 2012 ICYCLE originated!
It turned out to be a great adventure. From cycling clinics and BMX children's parties, to PumpTracks, which until now were only known in the Alps/abroad. Nobody knew PumpTracks and how do you explain something like that? 'It's a BMX track but for everything on wheels', but actually it's something you have to experience yourself. So it's high time to give everyone the PumpTrack experience themselves. Tim still remembers the very first event with the mobile PumpTrack, a company outing for an IT company. The PumpTrack was set up on the beach and everyone was enthusiastic. The promo video has made a major contribution to telling the story.
Tim always had the confidence and belief that PumpTracks would also conquer the Dutch and Belgian market, but it turned out to be not so easy to convince municipalities and campsites. People around Tim started to ask questions why he continued, but for Tim this was an extra motivation. The potential had meanwhile been proven abroad and the Netherlands, as a cycling country, could not lag behind, could it?
After years of lobbying, the time had come, in 2015 the first asphalt PumpTrack was laid in Graft de Rijp, municipality of Alkmaar. A small PumpTrack was realized as part of the construction of a new school. Tim got to work! And he was just happy. Meanwhile, a partnership with Velosolutions, the founder of the asphalt pump track, had been established. Swiss specialists came to the Netherlands for the construction of the first tracks and taught Tim and his crew all the tricks of the PumpTrack trade. Once again, however, it turned out: one job does not make a difference, in fact not much has changed.
The tipping point came with TerSpegelt campsite in Eersel, a campsite that likes to innovate. They offered Velosolutions an opportunity and we are still only too happy with that. The PumpTrack at TerSpegelt was literally the start of the PumpTrack trend in the Netherlands, and extra special for Tim: this is the campsite where he often visited as a child. That everything came together like this finally showed him that his dream would come true. In the years that followed, the construction of the PumpTracks followed each other in rapid succession: the largest in the world was built in Roosendaal at the time, and Tilburg, camping Ponderosa, Laren and camping de Pekelinge also followed suit.
In the meantime we acted under the trade name Velosolutions Benelux. It was in 2019 that Tim had quite a bit of hay on his fork. Clinics, mobile tracks, gravel cross tracks, asphalt PumpTracks and also regular business operations, marketing and social media. It was time to make a choice but it was waiting for the right moment. That moment came not long after Debbie approached Tim to support him on the socials. The fact that Debbie had to message Tim multiple times to get into conversation showed that he was defecting. There was an immediate click, so Debbie was hired and her hours quickly expanded. A decision was also made to divest the clinics and events with the mobile track and to focus on the construction of permanent PumpTracks.
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The construction team was now a nice pool of guys from the scene, which is something we find very important at Velosolutions. Building the tracks involves a lot of creativity, you have to have a feeling for what you are building and if you drive PumpTrack well yourself, you will make better choices during the construction. The boys spend a lot of time together, travel throughout the Netherlands and Belgium and do very physically demanding work, not something you can do for years on end. By keeping the team spirit high, with attention to rest and private time, a very close-knit team has been created that radiates fun while working.
The focus on installing permanent PumpTracks immediately paid off in 2020. In that year we built no fewer than 10 jobs, where there were still 2019 in 3, and we also gained a foothold in Belgium. Despite the fact that we are neighbors, the market in Belgium works very differently. From the way of communicating (multilingual) to completely different regulations and procedures. At a fair in Brussels we came into contact with Marcel and Antoine from Bike Your City, a bike shop in Brussels. They immediately offered their help and this was a hit. Bike Your City immediately started events with a mobile track, and an asphalt PumpTrack was installed at the office. In short, the perfect showcase and a good start to the partnership. We are now running in Belgium and the Netherlands with 2 separate office and construction teams where we do not lose sight of the connection with each other, something to be proud of! In addition, our own office team was expanded in 2020 with the arrival of Maxime. With her attitude 'if you don't have anything left to do, I can still have something to do', she was the perfect addition to the office team. 2020 ended with our first track in one of the top 5 municipalities in the Netherlands, Eindhoven!
In 2021 there were no less than 18 projects planned and that was being worked on, together with the flexibility of the boys, the office team and the arrival of Emile we boxed this together. Emile is a great addition to our team. His sons do BMX and he himself comes from road construction, the step to PumpTracks was a logical continuation. Emile is used to large infrastructure projects and brings with him a lot of expertise in asphalt construction. He likes the fact that we are all about quality, experience and making customers really happy.
2022 is therefore the year of our 10th anniversary, the year in which things are once again going very well with an expectation of approx. 20 projects. And with the arrival of the PumpTrack in Utrecht, we can already be found in 3 of the 5 largest municipalities ( The Hague, Eindhoven and Utrecht). In addition, we are increasingly being approached to work together, for example Athletic Skill Model, Bibian Mentel Foundation, Outdoor playing card, CityLegends, yew, KNWU (pumptrack.info), yalp en Valhalla.
PumpTracks are here to stay:
To conclude, we asked Tim 2 more questions:
What are you most proud of and what has stayed with you the most?
I am most proud of the development in a general sense, making something out of nothing. PumpTrack has taken on a life of its own in the Netherlands, new words have emerged, 'pumptracking' and 'pumptrack jobs' and the term 'PompTrack' has started to lead its own life on RTL. In the beginning I found it difficult that people did not see the potential, but that has changed now. There is a market including competition and that is only good, the PumpTrack world in the Netherlands has become a mature market. And it will remain so for the next 20-30 years, I have every confidence in that.
What do you want to pass on to other people who have a passion or dream?
If you believe in something and feel passionate about it, really go for it. If it makes you happy, then success will come naturally. Other people often expect some trouble, it is good to hear their advice and do something with it now and then, but above all keep believing in yourself and your own ideas.
In addition, entrepreneurship is dynamic, you have to be a real entrepreneur to like this. There were many difficult and heavy moments, but keep looking forward. Also dare to make choices, you will constantly have to deal with changes and avoid getting stuck in the old. Does a choice not seem to work? Dare to say this to yourself and take a different path.
