Dark times for Dutch cycling with seven races gone from the 2025 calendar
Cycling
Cycling races in the Netherlands are a dying breed. It's been written in the sky since NATO summit last summer, but now it's becoming a sad reality.
It's becoming increasingly difficult for local race organisers to secure all the necessities needed to host an event in one of the cycling's traditional countries. And it's not just the matter of projecting a unique course in mostly pan-flat Netherlands. Besides the struggles to secure a sufficient (police-) manpower to organise a large scale event such as a cycling race, many municipalities are taking a refusal stance recently.
These concerns reached even to Amstel Gold Race, the Netherlands' biggest road event. Luckily, the 59th edition may proceed normally (with few restrictions). However some of the smaller races weren't able to adapt to new requirements and so we'll see the Dutch domestic calendar significantly shaved down in 2025.
These races are cancelled:
- Omloop van Noord-West Overijssel (MJ + WJ)
- EPZ Omloop van Borsele (MJ + WJ + WE)
- Ronde van Overijssel (1.2)
- Veenendaal-Veenendaal (1.1)
- ZLM Tour (2.1)
In addition, there is no host for the 2025 National Championships at the moment and the KNWU (Dutch cycling federation) is still looking for an alternative.
These races are postponed:
- Ronde van Limburg (national level U23 race)
- Ster van Zwolle (1.2)
- Arno Wallaard Memorial (1.2) - moved from April to late September
The organizers of Ronde van Limburg and Ster van Zwolle will join forces to keep above water the Olympia's Tour (2.2), which is a key stage race for the Dutch continental scene. The five day stage race is also dealing with restrictions but the option to host two stages on courses of the one-day races will allow them to make the ends meet.
But there's also some more exciting news for Dutch cycling fans as two new Dutch races have been added to the UCI calendar. First on the list is a return of iconic Slag om Norg (1.2) at the end of August with its iconic gravel sectors. Even more exciting are the news of brand new six-day stage race Tour of Holland (2.1). At the end of season, it will fill up the gap left behind by cancelled ZLM Tour.
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- This from the man that almost destroyed the “essence” of cycling.Djs01-04-2025
- Regarding one point in the article: Vingegaard and Pogacar raced against each other at Monuments in the past - Il Lombardia and Liege, twice each from 2020 to 2022. Pogacar's results are 3, 1, 1, and 1, while Vingegaard's are 84, 28, 14, and 16, respectively in the same races. But Vingegaard hasn't raced a Monument since 2022.RidesHills01-04-2025
- What, no Jay, Jonas. Remco, Primoz, etc.? Hope Cras doesn’t need an H this year.Mistermaumau01-04-2025
- Interesting, now’s the chance for all those who were grumpy about or against paying for subscriptions. But, if the pay is half decent one of girls from the women’s peloton might beat you to it ;-)Mistermaumau01-04-2025
- In those days the Tour was like Paris-Roubaix 3 weeks running :-)tMistermaumau01-04-2025
- The Dutch are a popular sporting target for foreign criticismMistermaumau01-04-2025
- Completely agree, and that’s in cases where the team even reaches the rider before he/she decides to get up by themself and start chasing. No protocol or rule will solve this perfectly, this is not a sport with a referee putting everything on hold whilst checks are made.Mistermaumau01-04-2025
- Is it just me or are the opinions of retired pros from certain parts of Northern Europe becoming increasingly Pythonesque? “In our day we had sandpaper chamois and barbed wire for bar tape when we rode Paris Roubaix, it used to be a proper race”……..I’m not even that big a Pogacar fan and I hope he does it just to shut them up.Jezla01-04-2025
- True, but then we've always known that real safety isn’t an objective, just enough for the facade not to crumble.Mistermaumau01-04-2025
- Oh, this sounds more spicy than I thought. I didn't watch the event.
KerisVroom01-04-2025