In 1972 a group of students of Nijmegen returned from the SOLA-relay in Sweden.
They were so enthusiastic about this event, that they decided to organise a similar event in the Netherlands.
They chose to follow the route the Batavians had followed some 50 years BC, descending down the river Rhine: from Nijmegen to Rotterdam.
In 1973 around 600 students participated in the first edition.
This is the namesake for the event, but the track was moved in 1974, because organizing an event on the original course proved to pose too many infrastructural and organizational problems.
Since 1974 the athletes run from Nijmegen through Germany to the campus of the University of Twente and this course has remained largely unchanged throughout the years.
The prize for the winning team is a wooden Swedish horse and refers back to the SOLA-relay.

The race was cancelled in 2001 due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the rural area in which the race is organized.
In 1972 a group of students of Nijmegen returned from the SOLA-relay in Sweden. They were so enthusiastic about this event, that they decided to organise a similar event in the Netherlands. They chose to follow the route the Batavians had followed some 50 years BC, descending down the river Rhine: from Nijmegen to Rotterdam. In 1973 around 600 students participated in the first edition. This is the namesake for the event, but the track was moved in 1974, because organizing an event on the original course proved to pose too many infrastructural and organizational problems. Since 1974 the athletes run from Nijmegen through Germany to the campus of the University of Twente and this course has remained largely unchanged throughout the years. The prize for the winning team is a wooden Swedish horse and refers back to the SOLA-relay.
The race was cancelled in 2001 due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the rural area in which the race is organized.
Batavierenrace