This is the history behind this Frisian city ice skating tour, called Elfstedentocht or Eleven Cities tour. The Elfstedentocht brings every participant through the eleven Frisian cities that obtained city rights in their history. The start and finish is Leeuwarden. The route goes the following: Leeuwarden, Sneek, IJlst, Sloten, Stavoren, Hindeloopen, Workum, Bolsward, Harlingen, Franeker, Dokkum and Leeuwarden. The first four and the tour of 1941, were skated in the opposite direction, where they first went up to Dokkum. The Eleven Cities tour is sometimes nicknamed the hell of the North.
The Elfstedentocht was first officially held in 1909. This happened after Pim Mulier had the idea for an organised ice skating tour in Friesland. While people have been skating that route a lot longer, it was never organised until Pim Mulier brought it up to the Friesche IJsbond or Frisian ice skating association. After a meeting on the 18th of December 1908, where they discussed Pim’s idea, they agreed to organise the first official Elfstedentocht.
After the first tour was organised and finished there was a lot of discussion. Is it a competition or should it not be and should it just be a fun challenge? The Friesche IJsbond didn’t think it should be a competition. But Mulier and another man, called Hepkema, wanted it to be both a competition and a challenge. That’s why they founded the Vereninging De Friesche Elfstedentocht on the 15th of January 1909. Pim Mulier also designed the elfstedenkruisje that we still have today: the elfstedenkruisje is a sort of award you get when you finish the tour.
Since 1909, we’ve had 15 editions of the Elfstedentocht with a total of around 81,000 participants. During the first edition, there were 22 participants and during the last one (so far) there were 16731 people on the ice in 1997. The first winner in 1909 is Minne Hoekstra and he won in a time of 13 hours and 50 minutes. Now, we must remember that the quality of the skates was a lot worse in 1909 than eighty years later.
After the Second World War, the popularity of the Elfstedentocht increases a lot. The first after war Elfstedentocht was ridden in 1947 and was extremely cold and had an Eastern wind. That’s when it was first nicknamed the hell of the North or ‘de hel van het Noorden’. And, that’s when they first describe the most brutal part of the tour between Franeker and Bathlehiem, de weg der martelaren, or the road of the martyrs.
The fastest time ever was skated by Evert van Bethem in 1985; he skated almost 200 kilometres in 6 hours and 47 minutes. Women could finally participate in the competition in 1985. Yes, that was only 40 years ago.
The most difficult ride was in the year 1963, also called the hel of 63. Only 0,7 per cent of all skaters came across the finish line and the temperature at the start was -18 degrees Celsius.
It is said that the Elfstedentocht has been skated casually by Frisians since at least 1749. But it was first organised in 1909. The first registered ice skaters were written down in 1809 when a skipper and carpenter did the tour. What is also interesting to know is that people often placed bets on long distance skating to pass by certain cities.
The last Elfstedentocht so far has been held in 1997. The ice layer across the entire 200 kilometres needs to be at least 15 centimetres thick. The race of 1997 was also pretty tough with a strong wind of 5-6 and freezing temperatures of up to -6 degrees Celsius. Add the windchill to that and it easily goes to -15/-20. The last winner was Henk Agenent – who skated the eleven cities tour in 6 hours and 49 minutes, just two minutes slower than the fastest record.
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