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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn late July 1976, four cyclists from the Netherlands took a detour from their bicycle trip across the United States to work on a tobacco farm in the small Virginia town of Rice. The four cyclists left Oregon on May 20 as part of the Bikecentennial, in a group of fifteen riders, including nine Americans and two other Dutch riders. After two months of riding with the group, these four cyclists — Eeuwout Hulscher, Carry Van Gyzen, Fia Van Rijn, and Aad Wolvers — decided to break from the set route to see more of Virginia. Van Gyzen went to Roanoke to check the price of a return ticket, which was about $200 more than she expected. The four cyclists decided to find work to raise the funds needed for the return ticket. In Rice, they met Mitch Newton, who needed laborers to bring in the tobacco crop. Newton and his wife praised the Dutch cyclists for their hard work, quick learning, and niceness. Asked if tobacco harvesting was hard work, Wolves noted: \u201cAfter bicycling across the United States it was not too hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bikecentennial organizers estimated that approximately 10% of riders in 1976 were international, with the Netherlands contributing the most riders. An extensive interview with Gijsbert Valster, age 23 (Missoulian, May 31, 1976) provided considerable details about the Dutch interest in riding the Bikecentennial. Valstar reported on the more than thirty riders who left with the first groups departing Reedsport, Oregon. Valstar observed that Dutch cyclists were managing fine in the mountains, even though their home country is much flatter: \u201cPerhaps you have heard of the \u2018Flying Dutchman\u2019. We fly uphill and downhill. We get to the top of the hill and we wait for the Americans and when we go downhill we pass the Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On July 7, 1976, the Herald Progress published a photograph of fifteen Dutch cyclists who stopped in Ashland on their section ride from Lexington, Kentucky, to Yorktown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-19-at-9.29.16-PM-1.png\")
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