The Eleven City Tour, Will It Happen This Winter?

I wonder how many of you have heard of the Eleven City Skate Tour (the Elfstedentocht). This tradition is about as Dutch as wooden shoes and apple pie. Every winter, die hard fans are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that the temperatures will drop well below 32 degrees long enough, for the ice to be thick enough, so people can skate over the frozen rivers and canals that are connected by 11 cities and towns.  Measuring the ice, is an event in itself, it has to be exactly 6 inches thick, or more. The last time this happened was in the cold winter of 1997. This is almost 20 years ago. Lately, Dutch winters have been un-seasonably warm, thanks to global warming.

How did this tradition come about?

It was in 1909 that the first official Eleven City Tour happened. One of the founders, Pim Mulier, of this event had figured out the route in 1881 and he then did skate this route himself, but it wasn't until 1909 that it became a national event. The tour starts and ends in the city of Leeuwarden. The tour is about 125 mile long, with temperatures well below 32 degrees and with wood and metal skates, it was very hard to do. The winner of that first tour was Minne Hoekstra and it took him 13 hours and 50 minutes. There were plenty of frozen earlobes and toes all around!

After this first tour, there have been only 15 times up until now, that the ice has been thick enough for the tour. The second tour was in 1912, and it took the winner 11 hours and 40 minutes. The next one was in 1917 and after that it took until 1929, before another tour happened. In 1933 there were 2 winners with the exact timing of 9 hours and 53 minutes.

During the 2nd world war, the winters were famously cold and the war didn't stop the tours from happening in 1940, 1941 and 1942. After the war, the tour happened only 7 more times: in 1947, 1954, 1956, 1963, 1985, 1986 en 1997. 

This last tour one my uncles rode the tour (ome Ap), in 1997 and the winter was extremely cold. Temperatures were below 20 degrees and the windchill was about 0 degrees. With the modern skates of today, the winner finished the route in 6 hours and 49 minutes.

During any winter, when there are a few days of freezing weather, people and newspaper articles are starting to speculate if this winter will be the one where another Eleven City Tour will be possible. It seems like people enjoy the speculation more then the actual tour. Here below you see a video I found on youtube, with footage of the Eleven City tour in the very cold winter of 1963. I hope you enjoyed this little bit of history of my home country!