Depart from Assendelft by bike, circle the IJsselmeer and return to Assendelft seventeen hours later. Fifty times, dozens of cyclists from Assendelft did exactly that by participating in the IJsselmeer round. Last year was the last edition: the organization stopped because of safety. This weekend there is an exhibition that extensively looks back on 50 years of the IJsselmeer Round.
Pennants, newspaper articles, cups, more pennants and lots of pictures. Raymondlevering has done his best to provide as much material as possible to the Assendelft Historical Society, which set up the exhibition in the Town Hall. Delivery was involved in the organization for 25 years.
“Since my father passed away in 1996, I’ve taken over,” he says. “I also had all that history of my father from before. In the last two years to the last two weeks, many people have been busy supplying pennants and cups, for example. The Historical Society has also recorded many interviews with former participants to to be able to create something beautiful. It’s wonderful, all memories here.”
Spotting old acquaintances
Werner van der Elst participated in the IJsselmeer round twelve times. Crouching on his haunches, he peers intently at a few hung group photos. “They really are from years ago, I’ll see if I spot some old acquaintances. The further you get, the more you see.” Last Ascension Day – the fixed day of the IJsselmeer round – he couldn’t sit still. “I did a round of Alkmaardermeer with a few people, that was fun for a while. But that is very different.”
He rode his first IJsselmeer round in 1996. “I had trained well and bought a new bike for the round. Everything went well, until the Afsluitdijk… my bike broke down.” With difficulty he managed to get the broken bicycle to Slootdorp, where a comrade brought a spare.
NH News made a compilation of the last IJsselmeer round last year, in which Sjors van der Hoorn participated as a tribute to his father. Text continues below the video.
All the enthusiastic stories almost make you wonder why the round ends. Delivery has the answer: “It is no longer safe for us to ride with about fifty people on racing bicycles in a 200-meter string on public roads and cycle paths. The board is also getting a bit older. We have all said: ‘ It’s done’, the risk has become too great to do this.”
The exhibition is not completely complete: the former organizer is still looking for certain group photos. “I’m still trying to get the collection complete. But for me personally, this exhibition really feels like a nice end to a wonderful period.”