Harm Jansen

The Dutch cyclist who’s a member of the Saturn Cycling Team won the USPRO Championships in 2001 and placed third in the USPRO Road Championships in 1999.

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The Whole City in a Day: I like to bike across the city early in the morning on a Saturday or Sunday. Sometimes I go out to Mt. Wilson, so I cross a big part of the city. I’ve biked everywhere. I’ve been through Beverly Hills, Hawthorne, Inglewood and East L.A. I had to see it all. When I go to Mt. Wilson, I’ll start at my house in Woodland Hills, cut across Oxnard Street and then I take Magnolia and then Glenoaks toward Pasadena. It’s a pretty good route. There are bike lanes on most of those roads. Or another example is I’ll cut across one of the canyons and I’ll ride out to Santa Monica and have a coffee at the Rose Cafe. Then I will ride across the Sepulveda Pass and all the way up to Mt. Wilson and then back through the Valley. Sometimes on those days I put in 160 miles. I’ll leave when the sun comes up and come back when the sun comes down.

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Bargains and Babes at Target: My favorite place to shop is Target, the one here on Ventura Boulevard. There are a lot of pretty women there, always walking around. I’m still a typical Dutch person. Dutch people keep their money in their pocket, and I know that Americans consume and the economy here just turns over a lot quicker. So I’ve learned to spend my money, but I still buy stuff in bulk, and I go to Target. I don’t go there to shop for anything stylish. But for everyday household stuff, it’s good.

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Along the Road: I’ve discovered some interesting things while bicycling. I mountain bike in Topanga State Park, and I’ve seen basically all the animals you have out here. I’ve seen a mountain lion and a bobcat and deer. What’s also fun is trying to find roads I’ve never been on before. I just try and turn left and right, and you can sometimes find some really interesting, long climbs and there’s absolutely nothing out there, and you wonder why they ever paved that road. I’ve been here for seven years, and in the beginning when I was out here, I really wanted to see everything. And I ended up in downtown and I saw all the homeless and I was like “wow.” They’re living in all those carton boxes, and you see hundreds of them.

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A Young Town: One thing I miss about Europe is people walking, just people walking on the street, especially here in the San Fernando Valley. You have it in Santa Monica, and that’s why I like Santa Monica. I think I also miss the old architecture. It’s just such a young town. My town in Holland is 1,000 years old. So those are the things I miss a little bit. But you’re highly compensated here by the weather, entertainment and freedom of enterprise.

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Best Place to Bike: I have a favorite route in the morning that I usually take, and it passes through Cold Creek Canyon on the way to Malibu. The roads are so well maintained in the Santa Monica Mountains and relatively quiet. Topanga and Malibu Canyon are a little busy, but anything else, the other 10 or 15 climbs in the Santa Monica Mountains, I absolutely love. That’s my favorite spot.