Alternative Elfstedentocht An "alternative Elfstedentocht" has been held every year in January since 1989 on the Weissensee in Carinthia, Austria. The 930 mAA (3051 ft) lake is 12 km long and around 3000 speed skaters do either the 50, 100 or 200 km course at what is likely to be the world's largest ice sport event. The Dutch Speed Skating Championship is part of the event and the fastest competitors do the 200 kilometer course in just over five hours. Fietselfstedentocht (Eleven towns by bicycle) The eleven towns cycle race was first held in 1912 and developed in parallel with its skating counterpart, but unlike the skating race, has taken place on almost every year - apart from the 2001 event which was cancelled due to foot and mouth disease, it has taken place on Whit Monday every year since 1947. The event has become immensely popular and as a safety precaution it ceased to be a race but has become a tour with a maximum average speed of 25 km/h between checkpoints. The tour, which starts and ends in Bolsward rather than Leeuwarden, is currently limited to 15,000 entrants. Between 05:00 and 08:00, entrants leave Bolsward every eight minutes in batches of about 600 and those who complete the 240 km course before midnight receive medals. In 2013 the organisers banned Velomobiles from the event by limiting the event to two-wheeled vehicles propelled by human power. Zwemelfstedentocht On March 27, 2019 Maarten van der Weijden, a Dutch long distance swimmer, announced that on June 21, 2019 he would start a second attempt to swim the whole eleven-city tour. His first attempt in August 2018 was halted due to poor swimming conditions and illness due to E. coli. His second attempt turned out to be successful. Van der Weijden arrived at the finish in Leeuwarden on June 24, 2019. So far in this attempt he raised a total of € 3,910,763.11 for cancer charities. Notes References The Greatest Skating Race book by Louise Borden. External links Articles containing video clips Dutch words and phrases International speed skating competitions hosted by the Netherlands Long-distance races Speed skating in the Netherlands Sports competitions in Friesland