The sound of tearing engines fills the air above Eext this morning. More than 700 motorbikes drive through the village, but especially outside the village through the farmer’s fields, forests and sand excavation during the Off The Road-Rit Eext.
The engines are inspected in the early morning. It is checked whether the engine is good enough to go on the course. “Without a handlebar, without a brake he flies to Jerusalem. So we have to check whether everything is going well,” said Dirk Jan Keijzer, chairman of GP Eext and the event.
From nine o’clock the participants can start from the designated place. There is no time and no competition element. Participants can start for five hours and if they want an extra round of 50 kilometers. The trail is dry. The sand splashes when an engine drives by. According to Keijzer, there is something for everyone today. Because it is not wet. There is little mud, although you see the more engines passing by, that the sand becomes more waterier in some places.
Erik Van Klinken is looking forward to it. Together with his son and two friends they drive the course. “We’re just going to ride a nice round. We take it easy. There is no competition element today. Just enjoy it.”
Tim Cordeweners came to this place from the south of the Netherlands. What makes it so beautiful? “Motors. Just boys among each other. Nice in the open air.”
But the ride is not yet easy, some participants notice. At the Zandgat near Gieten, a excavated piece of sand, some get into trouble. It is a large, deep pit where a number of motorcyclists get stuck. After a while they know how to free themselves, but it is heavy. Reason for many to pause after this obstacle.
Yet there are also motorcyclists who actually don’t have time for a break. They go for a second round, or even a third, Mels Bennink from Overijssel says half joking to his buddies. “Just recover and then we will continue in fifteen minutes.”