The participants braved the first real cold of December. With red hands and runny noses, the children were solely focused on winning the race. Their enthusiasm, fueled by the excited crowd, made them quickly forget about the cold.

Dikke Banden Races are competitions for children aged 2 to 12 years old. Everyone can participate in their respective age category using their own thick-tire bike, which means leaving their racing bikes at home.

The youngest participant was under 2 years old. This race with the youngest ones naturally had a high “ooh and ahh” factor, but they were just as serious and enthusiastic as the older children. During the race, they were fully immersed in the game, busy with their own tactics to be the best. After the race, you would suddenly see a searching look on their faces, and as soon as they spotted their mom or dad, a big smile appeared. Whether they won or lost no longer mattered. After cheering on their kids, the parents had their own race on thick-tire bikes. Special bikes with very small thick tires were used for this purpose. Encouraged by all the children on the sidelines, the parents may have been even more motivated to compete. It’s always nice to see how that works, a winner’s mentality resides in each of us.

The larger middle group of children sometimes approached the race a bit too seriously. If they lost, tears would appear, but if they won, they wanted to celebrate it in a big way. Fortunately, each participant received their own bag of snacks from Jumbo, the sponsor of this event. This quickly helped the children forget about their losses.

The Central Market Hall was a highly suitable location for this event. Everyone arrived and departed on the train from Markt Centraal, which contributed to a highly successful start and finish.