Cyclist completes challenge of visiting every Dutch postal code

Gerard Burgstede, a 54-year-old cyclist from the Netherlands, has become the first person to cycle through every one of the 4,071 postal codes in the country, a feat that has covered 45,000 kilometers, totaling 87,000 kilometers. Additionally, the cyclist has managed to accomplish this while working a full-time 40-hour workweek.

“Cycling through all these places, you come across so many lovely villages that you would never visit otherwise,” Gerard said, reflecting on his long journey. "Whether it’s postcodes, municipalities, or random 1500-by-1500-meter squares, it's just about taking on a new challenge. Every time you go out, you have a goal," he told RTL News.

Gerard's cycling journey began in 2018, when he shifted from walking to cycling after many years of not finding much joy in biking. It all started simply enough but soon grew into a passion for mapping new routes. He joined a club on Strava, an app that tracks athletic performance, where members would "tick off" squares on a map of the Netherlands. Inspired by this idea, Gerard began cycling every weekend to cover the areas.

Initially, he began by cycling from his home, but as he progressed, he found it increasingly challenging to find new squares to check off. “So, I started driving to places like Groningen or Friesland, bringing my bike along, to complete all the squares,” Gerard explained. These “squares” amounted to about 18,000 to 19,000 areas across the country, some requiring him to cycle through fields or climb over fences. Over the course of five years, Gerard managed to complete nearly all of them, with the exception of areas that were inaccessible by bike, such as bodies of water or military zones.

Having already cycled through all 342 Dutch municipalities, Gerard set his sights on a new challenge about two years ago: cycling through all the postal codes in the Netherlands. Though he had already covered many of them, he still had 182 remaining out of a total of 4,071. In the past two months, he cycled an additional 2,400 kilometers across the country, from Groningen to Limburg, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, and Noord Holland, to complete the postal code challenge.

The final postal code, which he completed Monday, was an amusing one. "It was a block with just a few houses. You wouldn’t normally pass through that postal code on a regular road, so I had to cycle on the sidewalk to make sure the GPS detected that I had gone through the area,” he told RTL with a chuckle.

When asked about his favorite place to cycle through, Gerard shared that he was surprised by the beauty of many areas in the Netherlands. He particularly enjoyed cycling through the rolling hills of South Limburg and along the Oosterschelde, especially on a day with the sun low in the sky. "It was truly amazing," he recalled.

Despite the physical and logistical challenge, Gerard has managed to balance his cycling challenge with his demanding job, cycling between 14,000 and 15,000 kilometers per year. That’s an average of about 300 kilometers per week, which he fits around his 40-hour work schedule. He starts work at 6 a.m. and then cycles in the evenings, often embarking on long rides over the weekends. “In the summer, I’ll ride up to 150 kilometers in a day, and in winter it’s a little less,” he explained. "But it takes extreme weather to stop me. A hailstorm won't keep me off the bike."

Now that he’s completed the postal code challenge, Gerard is already considering his next cycling adventure. He plans to explore the streets he has yet to cycle through, but he also notes that the journey doesn’t always have to be a part of a bigger task. "But of course, it’s always fun when there is a challenge," he added.