Simon Alvarez Belon

Simon has been an avid cyclist for as long as he can remember, going on bicycle tours around Spain and the Netherlands from a young age. In pursuing this passion, he began his career with bicycles as a professional mechanic. However, upon moving to Utrecht and discovering the transformational effect of bicycles on human lives, his life-long passion for the bicycle evolved into a commitment to using them to make communities more equitable, sustainable, and happier.

Having studied Anthropology in university, Simon is particularly interested in exploring the ways urban cultures and cycling intersect. He also views cycling as symbolic of wider systemic change changes needed in the face of the climate crisis and is keen to explore the connections between cycling, degrowth, social justice, and animism. For his Bachelor’s thesis, he ethnographically explored the changes the ‘Dutch Cycling Habitus’ is undergoing, and how a key aspect of Dutch cycling culture is a unique relation to the automobile that emerged from historic and social processes.

At BYCS, Simon has focused on professionalizing the Bicycle Mayor Network, improving the way we support and capacitate Bicycle Mayors, and cultivating the Network into a united front of cycling advocates.

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