Walking, running and cycling. The sports enthusiasts took possession of Zandvoort again this weekend. Due to the corona measures, no sporting events could be organized. That is now a thing of the past. Finally the chance to set a time again.
“After two difficult years, we are allowed again,” says Ansfried Snijders of sports organization Le Champion. He may provide the start of the ‘Omloop van Zandvoort’ cycling race early on Sunday morning, together with alderman Ellen Verheij van Zandvoort.
Rob is on pole position in the paddock of the Zandvoort circuit. He can’t wait to cycle ‘for real’ again. “Yeah, normally you drive a lap to train and now it’s a little more.” Another cyclist reluctantly admits that not much has come of that training in the past two years. “A bit indoors. So it’s going to be a challenge today.” But it will finish. “Though it’s creeping, I’ll come home again.”
Snijders from Le Champion is happy that the sports calendar is well filled again. “Over the past month we had to cancel a few, for example the ‘Half van Egmond’ and ‘Greetings from Schoorl’ just didn’t take place. Anyway, let’s not look at what did not go through, but now look at what does happen.”
Yesterday 1,500 people already walked in and around Zandvoort. And 15,000 runners, young and old, started their laps on the Zandvoort circuit on Sunday after the cyclists.