The NATO summit in June has triggered significant staffing shortages for police motorcycle escorts in the Netherlands, leading to the cancellation of the Veenendaal-Veenendaal Classic races scheduled for 2025. This historic cycling fixture is unable to secure the necessary police presence, impacting both men's and women's events. The Dutch cycling federation has indicated this lack of support will affect the entire cycling season, with organizers expressing disappointment over the inability to maintain race integrity. Despite attempts to fill the personnel gap with civilian outriders, solutions remain inadequate for affected events.
As an organization, we have made great strides in recent years. We were well positioned on the international cycling calendar. It is extremely disappointing that we cannot now race due to a lack of police.
Despite the brevity of the NATO summit, the KNWU (Dutch National Cycling Federation) confirmed late last year that one knock-on effect would be that motorcycle officers would be absent at bike races for almost the whole cycling season.
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