Drenthe four-day cycling event cancelled

25 July 2006

AMSTERDAM — Drenthe’s four-day cycling event has been cancelled because of the ongoing heatwave.

The event committee took the decision to cancel the event hours before it was due to start on Tuesday morning following advice from the local GGD health service. The country is experiencing a heatwave and temperatures are expected to reach 35 degrees on Wednesday.

The organisers said they could not cope adequately with heat-related medical problems because the cycling event goes through Drenthe and Overijssel provinces and part of Germany. It is expected many people will still cycle parts of the courses on their own initiative.

The news of the cancellation filtered through to the participants. The four starting points were deserted on Tuesday morning. Only one person, who had not heard of the cancellation, turned up at the Assen start point.

Over 15,000 had registered to take part in the cycling event. They will not get their money back. One person went to the police to complain of fraud. The police refused to investigate the complaint.

The four-day cycling event in Venray is going ahead. The organisers decided to start earlier in the morning and to bring in more medical personnel.

Last week, the international four-day march event in Nijmegen was cancelled after two participants died on the first day.

Subject: Dutch news