In the morning of Tuesday 1 september the Councelar of Sports of Leeuwarden gave the startshot for the first SUP 11-cities tour. The international field of competitors listened to a speech of the chairman of the SUP fryslan organization and to Anne Marie Reichman. For her a dream came true with the start of the event. Last year she proved that the ultimate challenge is doable so this year she invited 25 other sportmans to join her on her trip around the eleven cities in the northern part of Holland.Read more...
Winner of the first Stage, Byron Kurt, continued his supremacy in the second stage from Sloten to Workum. He took the lead directly at the start. Followed by a small group of competitors. Eric Terrien, Xavier Masdeval Garcon en Bart de Zwart followed the winner of the Catalina Challenge with a small difference. It was immediately clear that Byron followed his tactics of yesterday and created a gap to make sure he also finished this stage in first place. He finished one hour before schedule in Workum.Read more...
The third day of the first 11-SUP stedentocht was the most exciting up till now. Soon after the start, a leading group was formed, consisting of Mark Raaphorst, Bart de Zwart, Byron Kurt, Eric Terrien, Erwin Janssen and Xavier Terrien Masdevall Garçon. With an average speed of 9 km per hour they paddled into the direction of Harlingen. In Harlingen they turned onto the Van Harinxmakanaal. This was the toughest part of the race due to choppy water and gusts of wind. Several paddlers hit the water. Nevertheless the lead group reached the finish line one hour before schedule. Xavier crossed the line first. Xavier: "I have paddled as hard as I could. During the race it is important to stay as close as you can to the leading man. Once your distance becomes more than 10 meters, you're done.".Read more...
Today the strong southwest wind blew the contenders through the northwestern part of Friesland. The wind found no obstacles on the stretched country. Byron Kurt, winner of all stages before made it a one-men show again. Even today he finished with a gap to number two. The following group was also exactly to same as the days before. Bart de Zwart, Eric Terrien and Xavier Masdevall Garcon worked well together and could keep the distance with Byron to a minimum. Also both ladies worked well together. Anne Marie Reichman, the organizer of the event, and Donna paddled together through the beautiful Frisian landscape. The Dutch skies completed the picture..Read more...
It was already clear after stage 1. In the first stage to Sloten Byron took a lead of several minutes. He did exactly the same in the following stages, so today he had an easy day. The followers had to do the job. The battle for place two was still open. Eric and Xavier where just seconds behind each other in favor of Xavier. Eric:”Byron took it easy today. He let us go and just followed. I was battling for second with Xavier. I tried several times but Xavier kept following. At the end we crossed the finish line as a group.”Read more...
Last Saturday, the 5th of September 2009, Byron Kurt from California became the winner of the "First Edition" SUP 11-City Tour after paddling 220 kilometer, through 11 cities in 5 days. He did this with an impressive time: 26 hours 44 minutes and 19 seconds. Anne-Marie Reichman (competitor and event organizer) became the winner amongst the women in 34 hours 12 minutes and 5 seconds. She beat her time from last year by 4 hours.Read more...
