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Here is the proof: 118km |
Two years ago the DUSFOR skaters from Düsseldorf, Germany skated 100km around their
city. With a few Dutch friends, I joined this skate and had a great time. A video of the 2004 edition is still
available on this site (sorry, never had the time to make it a bit shorter :-)
On June 5th of 2006, for the third time, we skated the
"Rund Um Düsseldorf" (RUD). Again it was great. About 100 skaters showed up in
the early morning. In the morning the temperature was not so good, but it would turn out
just fine later that day. A couple of other skaters from Holland arrived. Erwin and
Maritza just came back from Italy where they skated a 100km tour. Philippe from Belgium
was also present in order to train some extra kilometres for his 24h solo race in Le Mans,
France in July.
Since nothing had been organised, you had to take care of the
traffic yourselves. Although the people of the surrounding villages looked a bit surprised
to see such a bunch of skater passing by, we experienced no problems with cars, or other
traffic.
On the first hill, you could notice that a lot of
participants, didn't skate much this year due to the bad weather conditions in Europe in
March and April. Unfortunately, the big hill wasn't on the route anymore. Food and drinks
were catered for by the local gas stations. Of course this took a while when everybody
buys fresh drinks at the counter and also has to dispose of the bottle at the same counter
to get a refund for recycling the plastic bottle! yes, tidy people, the Germans :-)
The classic "Feldweg" was still in the route. This
small agricultural road contains a small hill where people had to fight gravity. See the
pictures below to get an impression of the atmosphere at this spot.
During the day I heard rumours the distance wouldn't be
100km, but 120km! My girlfriend Angelika wasn't very pleased with it, but she did complete
this RUD. A lot of skaters just joined for half a day. Train stations were readily
available along the itinerary.
We had lunch in a cafeteria which managed our huge great
pretty good. Drinks and warm meals were prepared and served fast. I have never seen this
with other surprise visits with large groups. After lunch the sun came out. A warm welcome
to me, since I was feeling ill (I catched a cold earlier).
Skating through a small forest we arrived at the river Rhine.
A narrow path led to the ferry, causing some commotion to the pedestrians :-) this year
the ferry owner crossed the river, but kept drifting a few meters away from the other
side, until each and every skater paid the fare! On the other side of river, the landscape
is flat, so it was easy rolling. The last stop for drinks and resting was at the big
indoor ski slope. From here some skaters had a though time to skate away the last
kilometres, but everyone managed. Victory was waiting for them at the finish line. Minze
from Groningen was almost dead on arrival, but he made it! Congratulations!
Many thanks the Dusfor skater for their company!
Keep an eye on the Dusfor skate calendar for next year if you
want to join a wonderful skate. (www.dusfor.de) |