Dutch madness..........

Most of Holland floats on water. The land is patterned with canals, ditches and gulley’s to separate the land from the high water table. In the winter all these freeze rather easily and the nation goes mad and rushes out to go skating. This is a country wide disease, but in the Northern province of Friesland it reaches a critical pitch and the "Elfstedenkoorts" (eleven-city tour fever) starts in earnest...

The Elfstedentocht is a skating event of 200 Km on natural ice, passing through eleven towns and vilages in the North east of Holland.

As early as 1760, there has been mentioning of skaters visiting all eleven cities of Friesland on one day. In 1890 and 1891 several hundred men and women skated the route on their own initiative. The idea was born to set up a special club, of which one has to be member, so that the tour would be better organised. There is a race for professionals and a tour for amateur skaters.

The reward, if you have all the control stamps, is a small silver medal.  

Nine men who form the 'Koninklijke Vereniging De Friesche Elf Steden' (Royal Friesian Eleven Towns Club' become god like figures in taking the decision whether the ice is thick enough (15cm) and the conditions safe for the event to take place.

Fries is almost a separate language in Holland but the whole population knows the phrase : "It giet oan" ("it is on!" in Frisian)

The fastest man to skate the 200 Km was J vd Berg in 1954:
He finished in 7:35 hours !! The start is very early in the morning - about 4 am and the amateurs have until midnight to reach the finish.

Strangely enough the club only allowed men as members,
right up until 1885 when women were allowed in and even had a special race to themselves !!

The most famous year of the event was 1963. The Northern part of Holland is VERY flat and the weather was atrocious with temperatures down to -16 and freezing gusts of wind and snow. The tour should have not taken place, BUT it would be the first year that it would be covered by LIVE television, and the Queen would be at the finish to welcome the winners. The 9 wise men let themselves be influenced by the media and let the riders start..... the conditions were so bad that there were many falls, frozen eyes and general exhausting in fighting the weather.

All along the route the
First Aid posts were
overwhelmed by the
numbers of casualties.

Of the 568 prof racers only 58 finished and the slaughter was even worse among the amateurs - of the 9.294 starters, only 69 crossed the finish to receive the revered silver cross. That year was hereafter called ‘The Hell of 63’. There's been an excellent film made about it (in Dutch)

This (Dutch)website has some nice video's of past races.
and winters in the past

Global warming nowadays means that the tour is held less and less often. The last time was in 1997. So if the temperature does start to fall the fever starts to kick in :~))

More info in English HERE

and a photo report from skating on the frozen lake near our house in January 2009