Information for the participants 2020-2021 / Plan-B

Dear participant of the 84^th Eleven Cities Bicycle Tour,

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but the road ahead is still long.
This is the way things look now – around 10 weeks before Whit Monday, the day on which the Eleven Cities Bicycle Tour would normally be organised. Over the past months, the board has brainstormed about a plan of approach for the 2021 edition. Due to the great uncertainty caused by the corona virus, we worked on two different scenarios: organising a regular tour and the possibility of an alternative version.

After cancelling last year’s edition, crossing out the tour again in 2021 was not an option for the board. The participants’ desire to cycle along the eleven Frisian cities is simply too great. At the beginning of this month, we, as the board, concluded that the prospects of organising a regular Eleven Cities Bicycle Tour are still not favourable. That is why we have been forced to decide to cancel the tour again.

Our ‘Plan B’, however, offers participants the opportunity to ride the tour independently from the end of May (the exact date will be announced later) for a certain period (see below).

Since the beginning of this year, we have been working hard behind the screens on building an Eleven Cities Bicycle Tour app, which enables people who were eligible to participate in 2020, to cycle along the eleven Frisian cities on their own.

This does not require an extra fee. The app will be linked to your account making your tour of 2021 eligible for your total tour count. The way in which to execute this link and the timeframe within which to do it will be communicated to you via an email at the beginning of May.

Below, we will list the features of the app and the conditions you need to take into account:

1. To be able to make optimum use of the app it is smart to use a good mobile smartphone with sufficient battery capacity;
2. You can pick the day on which you want to cycle the tour yourself, but this day needs  to be between the end of May (the exact starting date will be announced later) until and including Sunday 1 August at midnight;
3. You must cycle the Eleven Cities Bicycle Tour within 1 day/24-h period. To do this, you get a maximum of 19 hours. Just like the regular tour, you must finish before midnight on the day of cycling the tour;
4. You can start in any city. This is also the city you finish in. You are required to follow the normal, indicated route and stop by the cities in the same order as the tour on Whit Monday. So if you start in Bolsward, the first city is Harlingen. If you start in Dokkum then you will first cycle to Leeuwarden. Starting in Sloten means cycling to Stavoren next. We will signpost the route with yellow arrows on the road;
5. We will not be offering any facilities with regard to food and drink, materials or repairs and First Aid.
   You will be cycling the tour individually and at your own risk. You need to respect the applicable traffic regulations;
6. If you choose to cycle the Eleven Cities Bicycle Tour in a group, you need to respect the measures concerning the corona virus that the government deems applicable at that time;
7. You need to make a digital stamp in every city, for which there will be a sign with a QR code.
   The location of this sign is indicated on the map and in the app. You can scan this code with the app on your phone and record the stamp for this city. In addition, the app has a GPS function that records the route;
8. Once you have ‘stamped’ the last city, the app sends a notification to our list of participants and we will know you have cycled the tour. After completing the tour, we will send the medal to your home address. These medals will be sent between 1 and 15 October. Your completed tour will count in the number of tours you have completed according to the regulations.

Concluding.
The government may impose regulations due to the corona virus, which might not allow you to cycle the Eleven Cities Bicycle Tour individually either. In this case, we will notify you about the cancellation of the Eleven Cities Bicycle Tour in this form and the consequences in a timely manner.

We hope to be able to offer you a beautiful cycling experience in this way. All the best wishes for a good preparation and a pleasant tour.