Gitta Scheenhouwer and Thomas Kleinegris were on the other side of the world and living their dreams.

The Dutch couple wanted to live abroad before they began a family and so travelled to Australia, landed great jobs in Melbourne and got around their adopted city on bicycles. They were "made for each other", they believed, and could achieve anything together.

Gitta Scheenhouwer with her boyfriend Thomas Kleinegris.

But on August 12 last year, as Ms Scheenhouwer was riding down Chapel Street, South Yarra, on her way to her architect job, she was killed when Michael Panayides crashed a stolen Mercedes-Benz SUV while dangerously trying to overtake another car.

Panayides was drug-affected and sped at 80km/h in a 40km/h zone when he tried to get past a Mitsubishi Lancer on the left-hand side, and slammed into the Lancer and a parked car, the County Court heard on Wednesday.