It was cold, wet and there was a strong wind, but that did not stop the participants of ‘The Hour’ from giving one hundred percent. The seventh rowing race on the Ringvaart from Amsterdam (Sloten) towards Haarlem was probably the most heroic edition to date. De Hoop’s ‘men eight’ won the match. They covered a distance of 16 kilometers and 937 meters in one hour.
‘The Hour’ is a special competition. Whoever gets the furthest in an hour wins the race. The finish is therefore somewhere different for every boat. For the rowers of De Hoop, the finish line was on the Ringvaart near the Molenplas in Haarlem. It was great that they got this far. In the last kilometers they had the south-west wind directly against them. If that had not been the case, they might have broken the record of the Delft Proteus-Eretes from 2017 (17.55 kilometers).
Text continues below video about today’s race
The Hour – NH News
Initiator Jan Vegter of Het Spaarne, the organizing association, sees The Hour as the Eleven Cities Tour: winning is important, but it is about completing the tour. “It feels good to see all those happy, satisfied faces afterwards,” says Vegter.
Special edition
It also gives him the energy to continue with this event. He will certainly remain involved until 2028. Vegter: “Then it will be a hundred years ago that the Olympic rowing competitions were held on the Ringvaart, where our race starts. I think it would be nice to organize a special edition of The Hour.”