We usually meet a bicycle as a finished object: in a shop, on a street or at a race. European Cycling Industries’ 2026 “Made in Belgium” initiative proposed a view from the other side. Social media colleague and cyclist Simon Dekker Linnros was set to ride more than 750 kilometres across Belgium in seven days, visiting eight locations across the cycling value chain. The ride itself connected the businesses’ stories with the roads between them.
The idea highlights work that buyers do not always see: component development, production, assembly, design and the skills held in workshops all sit behind a single bicycle. Developed with Belgian industry organisation Agoria, the project planned interviews and company visits along the way. It turns a cycling trip into a journey through the workplaces of the people who make riding possible, as well as through the landscape.
The association’s figures show why the story reaches beyond one journey. In 2022, Belgium’s cycling economy generated €951 million in net added value and supported the equivalent of 17,434 full-time jobs. Those are measures for that year, not a claim about current sales. They do, however, show that a bicycle also represents local skills and enterprise — and that travelling by bike can be a way to meet the people behind them.