Last Wednesday the Frisian village of Nijelamer was the first in the country to organise speed skating races on natural ice. On a 160-metre track, 38 pairs started, skating two races each: one away from the village and the second race towards it. The person losing both races was out of the competition. In the end, 21-year-old Ronald Mulder from Zwolle won. Two days earlier, skating icon Henk Angenent had expressed doubt on national TV as to whether natural ice races would be held this week. The farmer from Woubrugge had observed fresh mole hills and saw this as a sign that the frost would not stay. But it did, and the skating peloton was happy for it. (Via free daily De Pers, Dutch.)

Photo by StanTheCaddy, distributed under a Creative Commons BY-2.0 license: children skating at the back of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in January 2007.