Ronde van Westerstraat, unique bike race in Amsterdam

Summer as arrived in Amsterdam, the city is full of outdoor events for everyone, mostly for cyclists. This weekend I had the opportunity to be a volunteer for a “Ronde van de Westerstraat”, a unique bike race which has a history of almost 70 years. If you look at the city map, you can find a lot of round streets, places in which locals started to organize bike races to compete between their neighborhoods.

Round street bike race has a history

The first “Ronde van de Westerstraat” was organized in 1948 and immediately became the most popular street bike race in Amsterdam. Thousands of people watched riders in and around Westerstraat compete for the victory. Here are some pictures with the race in the old times when Jordaan neighborhood was thriving during the competition.

But, let’s come back to our days, because this competition started to be alive again in Amsterdam, after a short break. On 16^th of June 2019, amateur cyclists or professionals took over the Westerstraat and wrote another page of history.

At 10.00 in the morning, the quiet street of Westerstraat was busier than always, the round street was covered with fences and people started to gather. Most of them families which came to support their children’s in the Kids race. All of the small ones were competitive and they tried their best. The next part was the woman race, which was a real competition for the ladies to be in, people were chanting and give applause for them.

The rest of the day were held different challenges, one of them with participants from the seventh neighborhoods of Amsterdam, just like in the old days.

Volunteering for Ronde van de Westerstraat ’19

This event was a super day for me and Cherry Cruiser, volunteering as “gate marshal”. I was proud to be in a team with friends (Paulien and FlowerBikeman) and to meet with other Amsterdammers who taught me new Dutch words. We started early in the morning and I was helping people to get around near the bike race track, and I was explaining to the tourists the story of “Ronde Van de Westerstraat” back in the days. Also, was an opportunity for me to do something for our cyclist community and to feel a part of this tradition that started in the late 40′ in Amsterdam. You can find on Cherry’s Facebook more pictures as a proud volunteer in my first edition of Ronde Van de Westerstraat, in 2019.