Elfstedentocht

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

The Elfstedentocht (West Frisian: Alvestêdetocht, English: Eleven cities tour), at almost 200 kilometres (120 mi), is a speed skating match (with 200 contestants) and a leisure skating tour (with 16,000 skaters). It is held in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, touching each and every city (by history) of the province. It is held, in practice in January or February and not more than once in a year, when the natural ice along the entire course is at least 15 centimetres (6 in) thick; sometimes on consecutive years, other times with gaps that may exceed 20 years. When the ice is suitable the tour is announced, and starts within 48 hours.

Course and rules

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 the ice is not thick enough every Dutch winter, and also because about 15,000 amateur skaters may take part, putting high requirements on the quality of the ice. As of 9 February 2012 (2012 -02-09) the last tours were held in 1985, 1986 and 1997. The rules allow the tour to be held only if the ice is, and remains, at least 15 centimetres thick along the entire course. All skaters must be members of the Association of the Eleven Frisian Cities. A starting permit is required. Skaters must collect a stamp in each city, and at three secret check points, and must finish the course before midnight.

De Bullemolen, along the canal "Bonkevaart", the finishing point of the Elfstedentocht

The finishing point of the Elfstedentocht is a canal near Leeuwarden, called the "Bonkevaart", close to the landmark windmill, De Bullemolen, Lekkum.

Planning and publicity

Since the Elfstedentocht is such a rare event, 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 cities fever) gets - culminating in a national near-frenzy when it is announced that the tour will actually be held. The day before the tour many Dutch flock to Leeuwarden to enjoy the party atmosphere that surrounds the event; that evening, 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).

On the day of the tour most Frisians and Dutchmen either stay home to watch it on television, or find a place along the route to cheer on the skaters - in February 2012, Friesland hotels were fully booked and expecting between 1.5 and 2 million visitors in expectation of a tour before it was announced, as the weather seemed suitable.

There are often points along the route where the ice is too thin to allow mass skating; they 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 re-introduced to strengthen weak places in the ice, for instance under bridges. Thin ice may occur naturally but sometimes there is human intervention: the "Committee Elfsteden Nee" is opposed to the race and sabotaged the route in 1997 by laying salt on the ice at one place^{[citation needed]}.

History

Competitors of the first (1909) Elfstedentocht

There has been mention of skaters visiting all eleven cities of Friesland on one day since 1760. 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) was established to organise the tours.

Video of the Elfstedentocht of 1954 (commentary in Dutch)

The winters of 1939/40, 1940/41 and 1941/42 were particularly severe, with the race being run in each of them. The 1940 race, run three months prior to the entry of The Netherlands to World War II, saw over 3,000 competitors start at 05:00 on 30 January, with the first five finishing at 16:34. The event dominated the front pages of Dutch newspapers.

The Elfstedentocht of 1963 became known as "The hell of '63" when only 69 of the 10,000 contestants were able to finish the race, due to the extremely low temperatures, -18°C, and a harsh eastern wind. Conditions were so horrendous that the 1963 winner, Reinier Paping, became a national hero, and the tour itself legendary.

The next Elfstedentocht after 1963 was held in 1985; times had changed. Before, one of the best methods to stay warm during the tour was to wear newspapers underneath the clothes. In the 20 years between the tours of 1963 and 1985, clothing, training methods and skates became much more advanced, changing the nature of skating.

The tour of 1985 was terminated prematurely because of thawing; as early as 22:00 in the evening skaters were taken off the ice. In 1986 the Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander participated in the Elfstedentocht, under the name W.A. van Buren a name often used by his grandmother Queen Juliana. In January 2010 the Dutch website Sportgeschiedenis.nl [geschiedenis = history] published allegations that since Willem-Alexander had not registered until the day of the race, his entry had been irregular.

Winners

The time taken for the winner to complete the course is given in hours and minutes. Although temperatures were sometimes above freezing on the day of the tour, all tours were preceded by many days of sub-zero temperatures. The time taken for the winner to complete the course is given in hours and minutes.

Date	Temperature	Winner	Time	Distance	Average speed
2 January 1909	n/a	Minne Hoekstra(NL)	13:50	189 km	13.7 km/h
7 February 1912	+3.8°C	Coen de Koning	11:40	189 km	16.2 km/h
27 January 1917	-1.8°C	Coen de Koning	9:53	189 km	19.1 km/h
12 February 1929	-10.1°C	Karst Leemburg (NL)	11:09	191 km	17.1 km/h
16 December 1933	-2.0°C	Abe de Vries(NL) and Sipke Castelein(NL)	9:53	195 km	19.7 km/h
30 January 1940	-6.1°C	Piet Keijzer(NL), Auke Adema, Cor Jongert(NL), Durk van der Duim(NL) and Sjouke Westra(NL)	11:34	198.5 km	17.3 km/h
7 February 1941	0.0°C	Auke Adema	9:19	198.5 km	21.3 km/h
22 January 1942	-11.7°C	Sietze de Groot(NL)	8:44	198 km	22.7 km/h
8 February 1947	-8.5°C	Jan van der Hoorn(NL)	10:51	191 km	17.6 km/h
3 February 1954	-5.4°C	Jeen van den Berg(NL)	7:35	198.5 km	26.2 km/h
14 February 1956	-4.9°C	no winner declared (**)	—	190.5 km	—
18 January 1963	-7.7°C	Reinier Paping(NL)	10:59	196.5 km	17.9 km/h
21 February 1985	+0.3°C	Evert van Benthem	6:47	196.8 km	29.0 km/h
26 February 1986	-6.9°C	Evert van Benthem	6:55	199.3 km	28.8 km/h
4 January 1997	-3.6°C	Henk Angenent	6:49	199.6 km	29.3 km/h

Women were first allowed to take part in the tour proper in 1985; before then they had to skate with the amateurs and no award was given. The women to cross the finish line first were:

• 1985 - Lenie van der Hoorn^(NL)
• 1986 - Tineke Dijkshoorn^(NL)
• 1997 - Klasina Seinstra^(NL)

(**) After shared wins in 1933 and 1940, when the front-runners 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 not disqualified, but no winner was declared.

The eleven cities

The course can vary slightly from race to race, depending on the quality of the ice. The cumulative distance at each checkpoint in 1997 was:

• 0 km: Leeuwarden
• 22 km: Sneek (municipality Súdwest-Fryslân)
• 26 km: IJlst (mun. Súdwest-Fryslân)
• 40 km: Sloten (mun. Gaasterlân-Sleat)
• 66 km: Stavoren (mun. Súdwest-Fryslân)
• 77 km: Hindeloopen (mun. Súdwest-Fryslân)
• 86 km: Workum (mun. Súdwest-Fryslân)
• 99 km: Bolsward (mun. Súdwest-Fryslân)
• 116 km: Harlingen
• 129 km: Franeker (mun. Franekeradeel)
• 174 km: Dokkum (mun. Dongeradeel)
• 199 km: Leeuwarden

Fietselfstedentocht (Eleven cities by bicycle)

Departure of the Elfstedentocht cycling tour in 2006

Main article: Eleven Cities Cycling Tour

The eleven cities cycle race was first held in 1912 and developed in parallel with its skating counterpart, but unlike the skating race, has taken place on almost every year - apart from the 2001 event which was cancelled due to foot and mouth disease, it has taken place on Whit Monday every year since 1947. The event has become immensely popular and as a safety precaution it ceased to be a race but has become a tour with a maximum average speed of 25 km/h between checkpoints.

The tour, 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

• The Greatest Skating Race book by Louise Borden.

External links

• Elfstedentocht - Official website of the Royal Society De Friesche Elf Steden (Dutch)
• Route of the Elfstedentocht on Google Maps
• http://www.drf.nl/sport/11steden/indexeng.htm
• Henk Kroes, Ice Master of the Elfstedentocht, on the impact of climate change
• Eleven City Tour in Friesland