[Case] Cycling festival Limburgs Mooiste

The Heerlen cycling club Grand Ballon organised cycling tours for family and friends. In 1991, the members of this club of friends decided to open up the annual cycling tours to a wider audience. They founded the Grand Ballon Foundation in 1992, which immediately managed to attract 1,500 cycling tourists to the very first Limburgs Mooiste. 

Limburgs Mooiste is a cycling festival that takes place in the picturesque landscapes of Limburg and the border region of Belgium and Germany. The organisation targets the broadest possible group of cyclists, who want to deliver an appealing sporting performance in a friendly atmosphere. 

In 2026, participants could choose from as many as 13 different routes and distances. Besides the tour rides, there were MTB routes, gravel routes and a family ride. Due to the large number of routes, a maximum number of cyclists per route as well as dispersion between the groups, the participants did not cycle through Heuvelland in a polonaise.

Cycling is growing

Limburgs Mooiste may continue to grow to 15,000 participants. The organiser of the cycling festival says that with the current number of participants, the event runs smoothly and remains manageable; that is worth a lot. At Limburgs Mooiste, safety and care for the environment are paramount. 

Research by the NTFU cycling federation in collaboration with Ipsos shows that cycling in the Netherlands is experiencing unprecedented growth. The number of road cyclists, mountain bikers and gravel bikers has risen to more than 1.5 million, whereas just a few years ago the figure was still below one million. The rise in the number of women taking part in the sport is particularly striking. Ten years ago, one in five recreational cyclists was a woman; now it is one in three. 

The NFTU Cycling Federation notes that road cycling remains the most popular form of the sport, yet off-road cycling is gaining ground. This is particularly true of gravel biking, which involves riding on unpaved roads and sand- and gravel tracks on a bike that is a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike. The number of gravel events also continues to rise, and organisers are increasingly adding gravel routes to their events.

Event supplies for cycling events

As a supplier of cycling race numbers, steering plates, bike plates and seat post stickers, PROM'ES works for various cycling events. Among others, we work for the Dam tot Dam Cycling Classic, the Drenthe 200, the Gran Fondo World Series and We Ride Flanders. Besides cycling race numbers, organisations can also come to us for all kinds of other event supplies.