LA MECQUE DES MARATHONS DE PATIN

Cette année, les Pays-Bas ont eu d’excellentes conditions hivernales pour le patin sur glaces naturelles comme on n’avait pas vu depuis très longtemps. Les patineurs canadiens Willem Langenberg, Brian Johnston d’Edmonton et Suzanne Dionne d’Ottawa se sont rendus aux Pays-bas en janvier afin de patiner des marathons sur ces glaces naturelles. Ils nous racontent leur expérience que vous pouvez lire en anglais :

January 11, 2009:

Brian Johnston, Suzanne Dionne and I spent 4 days in marathon skating heaven in Holland, where all the canals froze over and about 500,000 speedskaters were out on the canals and ponds during this weekend. We did two days of about 120 km and today we were among 30,000 skaters around Giethoorn and did about 70 km (slow going with many skaters).

The first day (last Thursday) we skated the 5 km course about an hour after the pros finished their race . Think about this: This lake (Oostvaarderplasen) is very similar to Big Lake near Edmonton. The lake in Holland is only good for skating once in 12 years and everybody goes crazy. Big Lake near Edmonton has been consistently frozen with good (often black ice) every November for the last 25 years. If we put our minds to it, we should be able to organize a similar event every November on Big Lake. We just have to get the North American (and a few European) skaters to come to this event.

January 15, 2009:

After Brian, Suzanne and I skated 325 km in 3 organized tours (organized heaven with possibly 50,000 skaters participating: Oostervaarder Plassen Tocht, Veluwe Meer Tocht en 5 Dorpen Tocht), we skated around Ankeveen on Monday and saw the Ankeveen Classic Races (Summary of the men's race; summary of women's race). It was a wet heaven. It was very interesting to see the AMB chip timing in use (every skater had 2 chips; one on each ankle), with the addition of video photo finish.
We also took the opportunity to meet with the Marathon Chairman of the Dutch Skating Union, Egbert Lambers and Marathon Coordinator Teun Breedijk. We discussed the MSI racing circuit and the (failed) Alberta attempt to get a marathon/mass start demonstration race at the Vancouver Olympics.

The Dutch skating Union (KNSB) is of the opinion that the European circuit (Sweden, Finland, Austria, etc) needs to be developed first in order to get a marathon/mass start event as part of the official World Cup program (a pre-requisite for a possible Olympic event). We pointed out that these races are mainly supported by Dutch skaters (and not very international), while the MSI circuit has largely North American participation and shows an international component. We planted another seed for the idea to make one of the MSI events a Marathon Grand Prix (World Cup) event, which was Evert van Benthem's goal for the Sylvan Lake marathons.
We will stay in contact with the KNSB and keep you posted of any progress.