Mayor, graphic designer, architect or minister. Six representatives of Austria have one thing in common – a passion for cycling. Whether cycling is part of their job or they do it in their leisure time, there is always a sense of freedom and joy associated with it. Do it like them, feel the freedom of cycling and cycle with us!

Horst Watzl, Vienna

Cycling in Austria has many enthusiastic faces. The following article will present you six of them in the video series with Danube Cycling Ambassadors starting with Horst Watzl. He is an enthusiastic everyday cyclist in Vienna, passionate road cyclist all over Europe and organizer of the popular classic bike tour in the Weinviertel called “In Velo Veritas”, which combines vintage cycling and culinary enjoyment with many hilly kilometers since 2012. 

Mayor Martin Leonhardsberger, Mank (Lower Austria)

As a mayor, you can do a lot to make the municipality more bike friendly. And you can be an enthusiastic role model. This is what Martin Leonhardsberger does in Mank, Lower Austria, with a lot of verve! As the second protagonist of the video series, he talks about the political challenges of making school forecourts car-free and about his favorite cycling destinations. Especially, close to his heart is the rickshaw project for the elderly in the village in cooperation with the initiative "Cycling without Age Austria". 

Tina Graf, Vienna

Cycling in nature and in the city - Tina Graf pursues both with as much passion as her creative work as a printmaker. Her print series "A Cyclist's Alphabet" is about the joy of bikepacking, lightly packed bike travel with tent and cooking utensils. For this, the Viennese artist with Taiwanese roots was awarded by the renowned international portal Bikepacking.com! In the video, Tina talks about her first longer bike ride to her grandma and how this developed into a love of cycling, which has already taken her to Spain this year. With tent and bike, of course :) 

Eliza Brunmayr, Rutzenmoos (Upper Austria)

By bike to kindergarten? In the countryside? Eliza Brunmayr shows in the video that this can not only go without problems, but is also associated with a lot of joy! Her family lives in the Upper Austrian Salzkammergut and does not own a car. Almost all journeys are made by cargo bike, the older kids cycle along independently. And if a car is necessary after all, e-car sharing is available at the community farm. Eliza's enthusiasm for emission-free mobility also translates into her job at Climate Alliance. 

Wolfgang Grillitsch, Pörtschach

Going fishing with a bike and a boat? That's what Wolfgang Grillitsch does! He is head of the study program for architecture at the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Kärnten and shows in the video how he masters everyday life multimodally without a car. For the journey from Pörtschach to the UAS, he bought a folding bike from an Austrian producer and can thus use the time on the train already for work. His favorite form of mobility has always been cycling. Since Lake Wörth is only almost on his doorstep, Wolfgang has even built himself a mechanism to pull his inflatable boat to the lake! 

Leonore Gewessler, Minister for the Climate Action 

Commuting between parliament and ministry by bike? That's rare in Austria, but Climate Action Minister Leonore Gewessler likes to ride her bike as often as her stressful daily routine in top politics allows, both to work and in her leisure time. Because cycling gives her a clear head and allows her to breathe deeply, as she tells us in the sixth video in the series. And in doing so, the memory of the cycle test in her childhood comes to life! 

All the videos with cycling ambassadors were prepared in terms of the Danube Cycle Plans project, aiming to take the Pan-European Master Plan for Cycling Promotion, the first comprehensive document on cycling policy transcending the EU from paper and put it into practice.  The project’s main goal is to have more people cycling in the Danube region. To encourage more people to hop on their bikes, the project has recognized three tools: the well-developed Danube Cycling Strategy, better cycling infrastructure, and increasing the awareness of relevant stakeholders about the needs of cyclists with their  improved capacity to promote cycling. More at the project's webpage. 

All videos:
Production: Alec Hager, Die Radvokat:innen
Camera & Editing: Niklas Stadler Productions