Start procedure

Principles

When designing the course, we aim to include the most beautiful unpaved roads and paths in the area. Moreover, we find it exciting to have a continuous course, so no local loops but 150 (or 85) unique kilometers.

We also have to consider factors such as local residents, safety, nature, and other traffic. In the months and weeks leading up to the event, we therefore maintain intensive contact with the Province, municipalities, police, local organizations, landowners, our motorcycle escort team, professional traffic controllers, and many volunteers. Ultimately, we incorporate all of this into the final course design.

Safety and Disturbance

Our entire organization consists of cyclists and race riders, and we always think from the participant's perspective. What is the most enjoyable, what is the most comfortable, what is the most beautiful, what do we want if we were to participate? But there are two things that we consider even more important, and those are the aspects of “Safety” and “Disturbance.”

Our events must be a celebration for the participant, but that can only happen if everything is done as safely as possible. And to be able to organize the event (and continue to organize it), we want to ensure that the surrounding area is minimally affected by our hobby.

Throughout the day, we utilize the following teams to ensure the race goes as smoothly as possible:

• A motorcycle escort team with a central command post and about 30 motorcyclists who continuously secure the course

• An off-road motorcycle team that “cleans” the course of other traffic and alerts other road users and recreationists about our event

• Professional traffic controllers at busy or complicated crossings

• Volunteer traffic controllers at all intersections

• Closing riders to ensure that all participants can exit the course

• Sweeper vans to assist stranded participants

  
  

Starting Blocks and Start Waves

• For a fair race, we place all age categories in their own starting block. This way, you always start simultaneously with and in the vicinity of your competitors.

• You can decide when to stand in the starting block.

• We will divide these starting blocks over 4 starting moments for the 150-kilometer distance and 1 starting moment for the 85-kilometer distance.

  
  

Start Waves

We work with start waves in which we combine categories. Ideally, we give each category its own starting moment, but that takes time. The longer the start takes, the longer we have to secure the course.

We aim to secure every intersection (including smaller roads, walking paths, cycling paths) in the first phase of the event for 30 minutes. And we hope that most participants will have passed through during the relatively short start period. We do this from the perspective of safety for participants and other road users, partially based on experiences from other UCI Gravel Races.

Of course, we continue to secure intersections and crossings even after this period with our traffic controllers.

It may therefore be that a driver waits about 30 minutes at an intersection before they can continue driving. From that point of view (and that’s what we need to do to continue organizing the event in the coming years), we opt for the system of larger waves. The disturbance to local residents, other road users, and the environment in general is simply less.

Finally, we expect that the difference will not be significant. Of course, it is clearer to start separately, but whether groups mix after 0 or 5 kilometers does not matter much for the final result, we believe. Fortunately, there remain 150 challenging kilometers to make a difference.

We wish all participants the best of luck and, above all, a lot of fun. Let’s turn it into a celebration together.