Cycling UK Forum

Anyone else taking part in this popular bike ride in the Netherlands? Looks like it's going to be enormous fun; the pleasure of riding along the cycle infrastructure is going to be a joy that I am looking forward to with much anticipation.

https://www.fietselfstedentocht.frl

A "plastic hats mandatory" ride in the Netherlands.

That's novel!

djrikki wrote:Anyone else taking part in this popular bike ride in the Netherlands? Looks like it's going to be enormous fun; the pleasure of riding along the cycle infrastructure is going to be a joy that I am looking forward to with much anticipation.

https://www.fietselfstedentocht.frl

15000 participants with varying speeds and skills on narrow roads. I'd pick another day

m-gineering wrote:

djrikki wrote:Anyone else taking part in this popular bike ride in the Netherlands? Looks like it's going to be enormous fun; the pleasure of riding along the cycle infrastructure is going to be a joy that I am looking forward to with much anticipation.

https://www.fietselfstedentocht.frl

15000 participants with varying speeds and skills on narrow roads. I'd pick another day

Probably still better than an average day risking your life on UK roads

The entry for the 2019 ride is already closed. It's a, at good weather, beautifull ride on mainly traffic free roads and cycle paths.
And because of the different starting times, it's not like in Belgium all 15.000 riders at the same time at the start.
So my advice will be, try to get the GPS file of this route, pick a day with good weather and ride it yourself.

marco.groenewegen wrote:The entry for the 2019 ride is already closed. It's a, at good weather, beautifull ride on mainly traffic free roads and cycle paths.
And because of the different starting times, it's not like in Belgium all 15.000 riders at the same time at the start.
So my advice will be, try to get the GPS file of this route, pick a day with good weather and ride it yourself.

On the subject of the GPS file I have tried to get it already so I can ride it as a DIY audax; been unsuccessful so far. However, I am riding the event anyway as my name was drawn from the lottery.

djrikki wrote:On the subject of the GPS file I have tried to get it already so I can ride it as a DIY audax; been unsuccessful so far.

Googling on elfstedentocht and GPX should return something useful
First one to come up: http://www.gpstracks.nl/fietsroutes-friesland.php?id=59

Thanks that's brilliant, I guess it helps if you know where to look.

I see that dates back to 2003, might be worth a punt on using that GPS file to claim some audax points.

Thanks again.