Shirley J. S. Agudo Knihy

Who would have ever guessed that a small-town, ruffian from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania would be earning a good living as a self-proclaimed Professional Networker based in the Netherlands, with a following of thousands? Today, I have not one but three organizations devoted to networking and giving back: RIBS (Ruffolo's International Business Services) Network, begun in 1995, wherein I give speeches and conduct custom-tailored network training sessions for individuals and groups; my Network-Club.com, which currently has over 3000 members, providing valuable contacts, networking venues and news; and my non-profit charity, the Giving Back Foundation, whereby mentors help minority high-school students in the Netherlands to explore career options. In 2000, I held my first Network-Club.com event in Amsterdam with 110 people in attendance. Today those events, which take place eight times a year throughout the Netherlands, attract three times that amount. We expand with franchises to the rest of Europe and the United States. My secret? Charles D.A. Ruffolo

The Dutch are bicycle crazy. Nowhere else in the world is bicycling so ingrained in the culture as it is in the Netherlands, and never before has anyone captured its essence quite like American photographer and author Shirley Agudo, a longtime resident there.Depicted in this enlightening and amusing book are young, old and even naked cyclists in a country with more bicycles than inhabitants, transporting 'anything and everything' on their bikes from tables and mattresses to four or five children and the family dog. Shirley and contributing photographers Trevor Waldron, Ben Deiman and Max Rubenacker take us along some of the 29,000 kilometers (18,020 miles) of bike paths and into the heart of Amsterdam and other Dutch cities to show us how pervasive, practical and incredible the Dutch cycling culture really is. It's all here the history, the infrastructure, the mentality and the global reputation of a culture gone completely mad about bikes.