The Eleven City Ice skating-tour consists of two parts: the recreative part and the race. The race is especially meant for marathon-skaters. Many famous skaters join the race, like Erik Hulzebosch, the Ruitenberg-brothers, Evert van Benthem, Henk Angenent (the winner in 1997) and in the past Minne Hoekstra, Reinier Paping and Coen de Koning. Even trackriders participate, like Bart Veldkamp, Hilbert van der Duin and also the coach of the Dutch squad, Henk Gemser.

The skaters start at 5.30 am. They are in a big cage. They count the last 10 seconds down and then the gates will open. They run with the skates in the hand to the ice. There they put their skates on. Now they are ready to start with the tour. It's important to begin in front of the crowd. If you are one of the last skaters it's very difficult (you may say impossible) to win or to finish in top of the classification.

Also in the race there are sealposts. The sealposts aren't always visible. So some skaters miss a stamp. The management has to disqualify someone who has missed a stamp. It's even worse when you lose your stamp-card, because than you haven't got stamps at all. Then you can't proove that you've been in all the cities.

You have to finish within a time after the winner (just like the Tour de France). If you don't succeed, you don't get the 'Eleven Cities-Cross'. And of course no place in the classification. Every year the finishing times are different. Here is a list of the winners and their winning times:

1909..........M. Hoekstra..........13 hours and 50 minutes

1912..........C. de Koning.........11.40

1917..........C. de Koning...........9.53

1929..........K. Leemburg..........11.09

1933..........A. de Vries...............9.05

1940..........P. Keijzer.................11.30

1941..........A. Adema.................9.19

1942..........S. de Groot...............8.44

1947..........J. Bosman...............10.36

1954..........J. van den Berg........7.35

1956..........J. Nauta....................8.46

1963..........R. Paping................10.59

1985..........E. van Benthem.......6.47

1986..........E. van Benthem.......6.55

1997..........H. Angenent............6.49