Introduction
The reason that I have written a summary in English about the "Elfstedentocht" is that many of my colleagues and friends abroad were intrigued by the 'incredible skating event'.
What exactly is
the "Elfstedentocht"?
It is a skating tour held on the Dutch canals. To be
precise, in the northern province Fryslân (formerly:
Friesland). "Elf steden" means: "eleven
cities": in the medieval past, eleven villages in that
province were given 'city rights', i.e. they were allowed to
build a city wall around their city, have their police, etc.
On skates one can visit all eleven Friesian cities in
one single day, covering the 200 km (120 miles)
trajectory using frozen canals and lakes.
Is it a race?
Yes, it is a race. But only a limited number of very
well trained sports(wo)men participate in the race.
The other thousands of recreational skaters just try to reach
the finish, 200 km further...
How often is it
held?
Regretfully, not often. It takes a very cold winter
to make sure ALL the canals and lakes on the route have the
sufficient ice thickness of at least 15 cm (6").
The most recent one (1997) was the 15th, the first was in
1909.
A Bit Of History..
The first time someone - Pim Mulier - skated these 200
km was in 1890. It took him 12h 55min.
Please find an overview below:
| Year | Winner | Time | Conditions | Started (total) |
Arrived (total) |
Competitive skaters |
Competitive skat. arrived |
| 1909 | Minne Hoekstra | 13h 50m | thaw | 23 | 7 | - | - |
| 1912 | Coen de Koning | 11h 40m | thaw | 60 | 18 | 38 | 14 |
| 1917 | Coen de Koning | 09h 53m | mild frost, light wind | 150 | 92 | 42 | 9 |
| 1929 | Karst Leemberg | 11h 09m | heavy frost, strong wind | 304 | 114 | 98 | 11 |
| 1933 | Abe de Vries and Sipke Castelein |
09h 05m | light frost, no wind | 512 | 378 | 173 | 57 |
| 1940 | Five winners | 11h 30m | heavy frost, strong wind | 3404 | 69 [2%] |
688 | 40 |
| 1941 | Auke Adema | 09h 19m | licht frost, light wind | 2500 | 1737 | 600 | 65 |
| 1942 | Sietse de Groot | 08h 44m | moderat frost, light wind | 4832 | 3946 | 970 | 277 |
| 1947 | Jan van der Hoorn | 10h 51m | heavy frost, strong wind | 2068 | 309 | 277 | 39 |
| 1954 | Jeen van den Berg | 07h 35m | moderate frost | 2735 | 2206 | 138 | 63 |
| 1956 | Jan van der Hoorn | 08h 46m | heavy frost | 6329 | 4848 | 259 | 109 |
| 1963 | Reinier Paping | 10h 59m | strong frost, strong wind | 9862 | 126 [1.3%] |
568 | 57 |
| 1985 | Evert van Benthem | 06h 46m | thaw | 16456 | 13060 | 277 | 224 |
| 1986 | Evert van Benthem | 06h 55m | moderate frost, moderate wind | 17316 | 14989 [87%] |
317 | 201 |
| 1997 | Henk Angenent | 06h 49m | moderate frost, strong wind | 16675 | 9714 | 306 | 128 |
Some Elfstedentochten have become legends: especially the 1963 tour where only 1.3% arrived due to the extreme weather conditions is remembered by everybody. The name "Reinier Paping" is - some 40 years later - still recognised by most adults. Sometimes endurance and camaraderie went hand in hand: in 1940 conditions were very harsh and five skaters were convinced that they would not have made it without the help of their mates, so reached the finish hand in hand.
I am not a crack, just a simple
skate-enthusiast. So please find my story of how a simple
skater participated...
How it all started for me
In the winter of
1995-1996 there could possibly have been an Elfstedentocht.
However since there had been many injuries at another skating
event at the Ijsselmeer shortly before (due to ice and
weather conditions) the organisation did not want to take any
risk.
I was not a member of the "De Friese Elfsteden":
there was a stop on new members. However one could become a
'possible participant', implying that by means of an official
lottery one could possibly get a starting license.
(Full members always got a license)
From the 'possible participants' (14.156 for 1996/1997), only
4.200 would get a license for that season.
