Mountains in the Netherlands

If you like climing with your bicycle, the Netherlands isn't the best country to go to.
The Netherlands is a low-lying country and does not have any significant mountainous terrain.
The country has been heavily shaped by ice age glaciation and subsequent sea level changes, which have further flattened the landscape where the rivers end up in the North Sea.
The highest point in the Netherlands is Vaalserberg, which is only 321 meters (1,053 feet) above sea level.

Famous Dutch climbers

Despite the lack of mountains the Netherlands did produce quite a lot of good climbers like Gert-jan Theunissen, Michael Boogerd in the past and Robert Gesink and Wout Poels are still riding.
One of the most iconic climbs in the Tour de France; is Alpe d'Huez is often referred to as "the Dutch mountain" because it has a large following of Dutch cycling fans.
For their training (professional) cyclist have to travel abroad to practice on their cycling skills.

A mountain in the Netherlands

In the past there have been several proposals to build artificial hills in the flat landscape of the Netherlands. These proposals were usually motivated by a desire to provide people with a new recreational area, to create a new tourist attraction, or to add a new landmark to the country's skyline. Some of these projects were designed for various outdoor activities such as cycling and skiing. However, these proposals were either never realized or faced significant opposition due to various practical, financial, and environmental concerns.
Building an artificial mountain in the middle of the country would have a drastic effect on the climate in the entire country.

CycleClimb

Recently an article caught my eye. It was about a project called "CycleClimb".
CycleClimb is an initiative supported by several cycling organisations which want to build an artificial climb in the Netherlands.
The idea is to build a wooden construction on a small artificial hill.

(Image of the project next to the existing indoor ski slope. Source: https://www.fietsklim.cc/)

The project would result in a climb of one kilmeter with percentages between 7% and 10% and an average of 7%. This would be a relatively short, but nevertheless challenging climb.

I must say the drawings on the site look impressive. And it's pretty close to where I live too, so I'm quite excited about this project.
But as most projects; this does cost a lot of money. They have stated that they need at least 9 million Euro to realize this project.
So if they even manage to collect the money and arrange the permits to start building, it will probably take many years for the project to complete.
I do hope that this project will be realized and that I, by the time it's done am still ably to drag myself up there on my bicycle.

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