Erik Hulzebosch
From 1991 and 2003 Erik Hulzebosch won the Barthehiemtocht 8 of the 12 races. This is an impressive result. In 2022 before the 33 edition of the race he was interviewed by Lisanne van der Eijk voor "Schaatsen.nl".. In this interview Erik gives an impression of the difficulty of this race and his eager to win. Let us give him the word, unfortunetely in English translation. He reports about the race in 1997 after he became second in last race while he won the former 4 races.
"Inline skating was for me more exciting than skating on ice. It is a fantastic sport , I enjoyed it a lot to do sport in the summer. For me the sport season was directed on the Bartlehiem skeelertocht. I could realize my successes on the longer distances, therefore I was focused on these races. Foreign skaters also came to Friesland to participate in this race. Philippe Boulard won in 2000 and 2001, Tristan Loy won in 2004.
Not all participants are able to skate this race so fast that they can win. It is an awfull distance. Around 70 or 80% have lost already the contact with the first skaters in the race after 70 kilometers. This was not a matter of not wanting anymore but you have to be a skater for this type of races. I always knew who would not be able to stay at the front, therefore it did not matter if they were with us at the first part of the race.
Not all participants are able to skate this race so fast that they can win. It is an awfull distance. Around 70 or 80% have lost already the contact with the first skaters in the race after 70 kilometers. This was not a matter of not wanting anymore but you have to be a skater for this type of races. I always knew who would not be able to stay at the front, therefore it did not matter if they were with us at the first part of the race.
During this race one has to consume some salt and sugar in the first 50 kilometers to avoid cramp in the later part of the race. This also happened to me once when I was with Haico Bouma ahead of the others. At 10 km from the finish he told me that he had cramp and could not take over the first position anymore. I had the same problem but I said to him "Haico, that is ok, I will continue in the front but then you should also allow me to win".. He said that is ok because I can´t win anyway. Nontheless the cramp I tried to go as fast as possible. Haico got completely exhausted, I too but this poker game led to one of my vistories in this race. Such tactics are also a part of the game.
|
He was also willing to participate in advertisements for his sponsor as we see in this funny video
In 1992 he became world champion in the marathon skating. After that he participated also in Marathon skating on ice and won there also nearly every year at least one long distance race on ice between 1992 and 1999. He participated also in an inline skate race of 142.7 km in the USA in 1995 where he became second. I have not found an video of Eric Hulzebosch on inlime skates |
However the is a video of him skating on ice because he was skating for the first place with the winner in the last Elfstedentocht in 1997. As the video below shows it was a heroic fight after skating 200km.
Hulzebosch success on ice and on the road seems to suggest that these two disciplines, speed skating on ice and speedskating on inline skates are so similar that a very good speedskater in one discipline can also become a winner in the other discipline. However, not all skaters agree with this point of view.
On the other hand, one may wonder why the Elstedentocht of 200km on ice was not continued as an inline speed skating race? In the USA there was at least one tour for inline skaters longer than 100 km that successfully has been organized on a yearly basis since 1989
On the other hand, one may wonder why the Elstedentocht of 200km on ice was not continued as an inline speed skating race? In the USA there was at least one tour for inline skaters longer than 100 km that successfully has been organized on a yearly basis since 1989