Oliebollentocht 2018

Each year on 28 December there is a gathering of velomobiles for a group ride. I attended Oliebollentocht in 2016 in Dronten, 2017 in Rotterdam and then this year’s was just round the corner in Roermond. So of course we had it in our diaries for months!

Klaus and I were joined by Fritz and Biggi (www.tandemontour.de) who stayed with us the night before Oliebollentocht as they had a 3 hour car journey to get to Roermond. They arrived with their two DFs on a trailer.

I had already arranged to borrow Ralf’s Sprinter (once again!) and Biggi decided she would be happy to come with me in the Sprinter to the start of Oliebollentocht. Klaus and Fritz would ride to Ralf’s where they would collect him, Hartmut and Thomas, a Quest rider from Kleve and then all ride the 30km to Roermond.

The Sprinter was packed with Millie and Biggie’s DF, called the Little Bat. Klaus and Fritz set off at 7:15 and as Biggi and I were ready we decided to drive to Ralf’s to say hello to everyone as they gathered.

We then drove to Roermond, where everyone was gathering in a sports centre. There was lots of parking which was handy as the place was full of cars with trailers with velomobiles on top. Others had cycled the day before to a location where the organisers had arranged sleeping quarters. There was lots going on!

Here is a row of velomobiles including Klaus’s Quattrovelo Emily.

Klaus, Ralf, Fritz, Hartmut and Thomas arrived not long after Biggi and I had unloaded our Velomobiles and registered.

I bumped into chum Klaus from Köln who is always very handy with a camera and asked him if he would take some photos of Millie – and he of course obliged. Most of the photos below were taken by him.

We had some introductory remarks by various people – the event was being sponsored by several organisations including the EU! Then it was time for us all to get in our velomobiles and try to make our way out of the car park and onto the 66km route that had been planned for us.

Ahead of me in this picture is the black and white DF belonging to Lincoln, who I met last year at Oliebollentocht. He comes over from Australia for the event (and also other things, I think!) so that is very impressive! He wins the competition for furthest distance travelled to Oliebollentocht.

We very slowly rolled out of the car park.

The route that had been chosen had quite a few switchbacks and corners – and this made for a wonderful sight! I was actually in about the first third of the velomobiles but still saw this long series of velomobiles in front of me (the picture below was taken by me).

To me they looked like a load of jellybeans!

Here are some of Klaus from Köln’s pictures, including the hot air balloon which took off just in front of us. The people in the balloon must have got some wonderful shots of all the velomobiles!

The route wended its way around Roermond and then headed towards Germany, taking in mostly quiet B-roads and farm tracks. But soon we were heading up the main road towards Brüggen and crossed into Germany.

And eventually we arrived at our lunch destination in Niederkrüchten. There were velomobiles parked all over the green beside the chapel.

Klaus and I found a seat and enjoyed the lunch of bread rolls, meat, cheese, scrambled egg and drinks. The place was full, as it turned out there had been 150 velomobiles!

The lunch stop was just the right length, as we were finishing with our cups of tea and coffee it was time to move on again. It had been a good opportunity to talk to some friends.

We set off again, first having to queue to get back into our long line which must have stretched nearly a kilometre.

I was fairly near the head of the string of velomobiles and the drivers of the cars that had stopped to let us past were still smiling and waving. I think as they realised there were rather a lot of us their grins probably turned into rather more of a grimace. There were some long hold-ups, although we kept the group together pretty well.

And for this I have to thank Oliver Piper and the organisation team from Grensrijders. I had struggled a bit on the previous Oliebollentocht rides as the speed was too great for me, and people didn’t wait. I ended up riding large chunks on my own, which I felt rather defeated the object of a group ride. I had talked to Oliver about this earlier in the year, and I said I thought it would be good to offer a shorter route (which indeed he did, although I don’t know if anyone used it), and he definitely took more care to keep us together. Oliver led from the front and there weren’t any large gaps apparent to me, as he kept the speed constant and manageable. I know another rider said to me it was a bit fast for them, but as I had my motor this year it was pretty easy for me. So thanks again to the Grensrijders for all their wonderful planning for the event, and for making it all run so smoothly.

When we got back to the Leisure Centre we collected our goodie bags which included t-shirts (we had earlier all been given rather nice fleecy hats!). We were given soup and of course the eponymous Oliebollen…

There were some speeches which included a short time of silence to remember Robert Frischemeier, Liegender_Robert, who died in February. We were also extremely sad to hear that a rider Erwin, who I know from his Velomobile Tante Lies, had suffered a serious accident on his way to Oliebollentocht the day before when in the dark he hadn’t seen a horizontal barrier across the road and had hit it hard with his head. The last we heard he was in a coma with many broken facial bones and had already had his first operation. We all hope that he makes a full recovery.

After a couple of hours it was time to head home, Biggi and I in the warm Sprinter, Klaus and the rest in their velomobiles. Klaus ended up with a 170km day, Biggi and I had the 66km, which we enjoyed very much.

Biggi and Fritz stayed another night with us and then headed off with their bikes on the trailer the next morning.

Oliebollentocht is a really impressive experience. Where else do you see 150 velomobiles in one place? We were also extremely lucky with the weather as, although rather cold (2 degrees), it was dry and clear.

Thanks again to the organising team, and to Klaus from Köln for letting me use lots of his photos. There are lots of YouTube videos of OBT2018 which you can search for if you want to see all the different velomobiles, although this year seemed to be the Year of the DF.

Friend Jupp shot a great video of the event – you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/toAyorIf0ec

Next year, December 28, Oliebollentocht will be in Utrecht. I can’t wait!

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