Elfstedentocht: Canals could host 200-km race

For those international students with enough dumb luck to end up living along a canal – I fall into this group – it can take awhile to get adjusted.

The first week I was here, for instance, I heard the faintest sound of jazz wafting through my second-floor window. As the music grew louder, I deduced that there must be a boat heading my way, and that said boat was celebrating the beautiful August weather by playing jazz.

I didn’t know how right I was: They were literally playing jazz. There was a drummer with a full drum set, people with horns, a bassist. Crazier yet, no one seemed to think anything of it.

This may be par for the course in the Netherlands, but it left me wondering what other oddities were liable to take place along the canals.

Well, there may indeed be another bizarre scene unfolding on the Netherlands’ famous canals. And this one would be noteworthy not only to me, but to all of Holland.

It’s called Elfstedentocht, which translates to Eleven Cities Tour, and it is essentially a 200-kilometer race along the country’s myriad canals. And as was the case with me when I saw that boat-top jazz, the Netherlands is smitten with Elfstedentocht.

On 7 February, Radio Netherlands did a round-up of Dutch media coverage of Elfstedentocht. Evidence by the amount of ink devoted to it, the chance of another Elfstedentocht seems to be music to the Dutch’s ears. According to RN,

“Polish, mop and sweep” – it’s not the catchiest headline ever to grace De Telegraaf’s front page. But when it refers to the country’s feverish efforts to make sure the ice is good enough for the legendary 200 km Elfstedentocht skating race to go ahead, it’s sure to have Dutch readers on the edge of their seats….

To give you an idea of just how deep the obsession goes, AD devotes its first seven pages to the story, while De Telegraaf manages a mere five.

Despite the obvious excitement, conditions must be just right for Elfstedentocht to occur. The ice must be at least 15 cm thick, for some 15,000 people would likely participate. At this point, it’s up to the weather.

As the Huffington Post reported,

Wiebe Wieling, chairman of the Frisian Eleven Cities Association, told a nationally televised news conference on Monday that organizers hope to hold the event…but added: “The weather will determine what happens next….We want nothing more than to organize the ‘Elfstedentocht.’ We have been waiting 15 years and we’re doing all we can.”

First held in 1909, the last Elfstedentocht was in 1997. The winner of the ’97 race was a farmer named Henk Angenent, who completed course in six hours, 49 minutes.

Along with Huffington Post, a few other non-Dutch media outlets are picking up the story. In the U.S., National Public Radio had this article, while the Associated Press had this. The Herald Sun out of Australia published this piece, and Der Spiegel’s international addition had this.

Now if only someone could convince that jazz band to take their instruments to the ice.

EDIT: The race is off — at least for now.

The head of the Friesian 11 Cities Association, Wiebe Wieling, announced Wednesday night that the ice was not thick enough to support the estimated 16,000 people who are expected to participate.

The weather is expected to warm up slightly heading into the weekend. All is not lost, however, as a cold spell is expected to his next week. After all, there is, reportedly, an old Friesian saying, “Old ice freezes best.”