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Elfstedentocht

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The course of the Elfstedentocht of 1997 (skated in a clockwise direction, as in '85, '86, '97)
Video of the Elfstedentocht of 1954 (commentary in Dutch)

The Elfstedentocht (or, in West Frisian, Alvestêdetocht, English translation: "Eleven Cities Tour"), the world's largest and longest speed skating competition and leisure skating tour, is held irregularly in the province of Friesland, Netherlands[1].

The tour, almost 200 km in length, is conducted on frozen canals, rivers and lakes between the eleven historic Frisian cities: Leeuwarden, Sneek, IJlst, Sloten, Stavoren, Hindeloopen, Workum, Bolsward, Harlingen, Franeker, Dokkum then returning to Leeuwarden. The tour is not held every year, mostly because not every Dutch winter permits skating on natural ice. The last editions were in 1985, 1986 and 1997. Adding to that, the tour currently features about 15,000 amateur skaters taking part, putting high requirements on the quality of the ice. There is a stated regulatory requirement for the race to take place that the ice must be (and remain at) a minimum thickness of 15 centimetres along the entirety of the course.

Since the Elfstedentocht is such a rare occurrence, its declaration creates excitement all over the country. As soon as a few days pass with sub-zero temperatures, the media start speculating about the chances for an Elfstedentocht. The longer the freezing temperatures stay, the more intense this "Elfstedenkoorts" (eleven-city tour fever) gets - culminating in a national near-frenzy when the magic words "It giet oan" ("it is on!" in West Frisian) are spoken to announce that the tour is actually taking place. The day before the race many Dutch flock to Leeuwarden to enjoy the party atmosphere that surrounds the event. The evening before the race called the "Nacht van Leeuwarden" (Night of Leeuwarden) becomes a giant city-wide street party (Frisians, who have a reputation of surliness, are said to thaw when it freezes). At the day of the race most Frisians and Dutchmen stay home to watch the race on television.

There are likely to be points along the route where the ice is too thin to allow mass skating, or where there is some other problem (e.g., there is actually an organisation "Committee Elfsteden Nee" that is opposed to the race and sabotaged the route in 1997 by laying salt on the ice at one place). These are called "kluning points" (from West Frisian klúnje) and the skaters walk on their skates to the next stretch of good ice. In 1997 ice-transplantation was introduced to strengthen weak places in the ice, for instance under bridges.

History

The Elfstedentocht was already part of Frisian tradition, when in 1890, Pim Mulier conceived the idea of an organised tour, which was first held in 1909. After this race, the Vereniging De Friesche Elf Steden (Association of the Eleven Frisian Cities) [2]was established to take care of the organisation.

In 1963, only 1% of the contestants finished the race, due to the extremely low temperatures -18°C and a harsh eastern wind.

In 1986 the Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander participated in the Elfstedentocht, under the name W.A. van Buren.

Winners

The time taken for the winner to complete the course is given in hours and minutes.[3]

Year Winner Time Distance Average speed
1909 *[Rev] Minne Hoekstra 13:50 189 km 13.7 km/h
1912 Coen de Koning 11:40 189 km 16.2 km/h
1917 Coen de Koning 9:53 189 km 19.1 km/h
1929 *Karst Leemburg 11:09 191 km 17.1 km/h
1933 *Abe de Vries and *Sipke Castelein 9:53 195 km 19.7 km/h
1940 *Piet Keijzer, *Auke Adema, *Cor Jongert, *Durk van der Duim and *Sjouke Westra 11:30 198.5 km 17.3 km/h
1941 *Auke Adema 9:19 198.5 km 21.3 km/h
1942 *Sietze de Groot 8:44 198 km 22.7 km/h
1947 *Jan van der Hoorn 10:51 191 km 17.6 km/h
1954 *Jeen van den Berg 7:35 198.5 km 26.2 km/h
1956 no winner declared (**) — 190.5 km —
1963 *Reinier Paping 10:59 196.5 km 17.9 km/h
1985 *Evert van Benthem 6:47 196.8 km 29.0 km/h
1986 *Evert van Benthem 6:55 199.3 km 28.8 km/h
1997 Henk Angenent 6:49 199.6 km 29.3 km/h

Women were first allowed to take part in the race in 1985. Before, women had to skate with the amateurs and no award was given. The women to cross the finish line first were:

(*) Links point to the Dutch language version of Wikipedia.

(**) After shared wins in 1933 and 1940, when the leaders at the front decided not to compete but join hands to cross the line together, this practice was forbidden by the organisation. Jan van der Hoorn, Aad de Koning, Jeen Nauta, Maus Wijnhout and Anton Verhoeven however ignored this rule when they crossed the finish line in unison. They were disqualified, and no winner was declared.

The eleven cities

The distances between the cities can vary slightly, depending on the exact route; those given here are those of 1997.

Fietselfstedentocht (Eleven cities by bicycle)

Departure of the Elfstedentocht cycling tour in 2006
Main article: nl:Fietselfstedentocht

The eleven cities cycle race developed in parallel with its skating counterpart, but unlike the skating race, has taken place almost every year. Since 1947 it has taken place on Whit Monday. The event has become immensely popular and as a safety precaution in it ceased to be a race but has become a tour with a maximum average speed of 25 km/h between checkpoints.

The race, which starts and ends in Bolsward rather than Leeuwarden is currently limited to 15,000 entrants. Between 05:00 and 08:00, entrants leave Bolsward every eight minutes in batches of about 600 and those who complete the 240 km course before midnight receive medals.

References

  1. ^ "Geschiedenis Schrijft elfstedengeschiedenis. Schrijf mee! ["Geschiedenis" writes the Eleven Cities History. Please contribute]". VPRO [Dutch Television Station]. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  2. ^ "Official Website [in Dutch - some pages are also available in English]". Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  3. ^ "History". Vereniging De Friesche Elf Steden [Association of the Eleven Fries Cities]. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  • The Greatest Skating Race book by Louise Borden.
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