Windy Woes Results in Last Minute Cancellation of the Dutch Headwind Cycling Championships

Picture this: a cycling championship where there is a showdown between the cyclists and Mother Nature herself. Sure, it sounds bizarre but it exists. And it’s as thrilling to watch as it is curious to hear about it. It’s literally like riding the wind! Known as the Dutch Headwind Cycling Championship, this event takes place in the Netherlands and it really makes cycling an event of almost comical extremes. 

So one would imagine that the event wouldn’t get canceled due to bad weather, right? Right? Yeah, except it just did. But why would a cycling event whose selling point is that it deals with the extremes of mother nature, be canceled because mother nature was being too extreme? Is too extreme even a thing? 

Cycling event undergoes hindrances from Mother Nature

See, the Dutch Headwind Cycling Championship takes place on a stretch of the North Sea and is renowned for its grueling conditions. But this doesn’t mean the participants throw caution to the wind and run headfirst into a violent tornado. There are systems in place to keep a check on how extreme the weather is allowed to be for it to be conducive to host this event. 

So keeping the safety aspect under check, the event is permitted to take place only during storms of force seven and higher with the wind speed exceeding 32mph.

However, this year the wind speed has exceeded the limit gusting at 43mph resulting in the cancellation of the cycling event. In a recent video posted on Twitter from the official handle of NK Tegenwindfietsen, the caption reads, “It was one of the toughest editions to date. Wind, rain, sand, everything was thrown at the participants at speeds of up to 90 km/h. Cycling hats off to everyone who braved the Kering on a bicycle without gears but with high handlebars.”

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Following the calling-off of the event, one of the participants in an interview with Road.cc stated, “Still, it seems like a bad joke… the National Headwind Cycling Championships has been canceled due to the strong wind”. Among the other participants were former professional cyclists Laurens ten Dam and Thomas Dekker who were preparing to run the 8.5 km race. 

Refunds and future plans reassure cycling enthusiasts

As you might have rightly imagined, this is an expensive sport. Nothing about it looks cheap or is cheap. So naturally when an event like this gets canceled, the mood does turn sour in the competitors’ camps. After all, they would have spent thousands of dollars to get to this point alone. However, Robrecht Stoekenbroek, the organizer of the event assured that they would be refunded soon. 

Not just this, the organizers would soon set another date for the event to be organized as well- “Whether that’s in two weeks or two months… as far as I’m concerned, we’ll be looking out for wind again from tomorrow. We have built everything up, people have made an effort to take time off… to then say, ‘We’re going through a storm, but it won’t happen after all’, that’s difficult.”

Meanwhile, the fans have taken charge of the comment section to share their views and emotions. Most people just didn’t know that it was even an event. That unfortunately true. It’s a niche sport and has often attracted similar crowds but that seems to be changing recently. 

Needless to say, cycling enthusiasts eagerly wait for nature’s fury to calm down. Despite technology evolving with every passing day, making it easier for athletes to embark on adventure, taming nature is still beyond their reach.

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