The eleven cities cycle race was first held in 1912 and developed in parallel with its skating counterpart, but unlike the skating race, has taken place on almost every year - apart from the 2001 event which was cancelled due to foot and mouth disease, it has taken place on Whit Monday every year since 1947.
The Netherlands is home of Elfstedentocht, a 200 km distance skating race of which the tracks leads through the 11 different cities in Friesland which is a northern province of the Netherlands.
Since 1989 an Alternative Elfstedentocht is organized there by the SWS (Stichting Winter Sporten) on the natural ice rink in winter.
She finished third at the artificial championships this time, but managed to win 21 matches in total that year, including The Open Canadian Championships and the Alternative Elfstedentocht in Sylvan Lake, Canada.
Evert van Benthem (b. 1958), Dutch speedskater, twice winner of the Elfstedentocht