It's getting late on this September Sunday. The sun is already casting soft light on the building facades. And the golden autumn atmosphere makes Düsseldorf's best location seem even more elegant. Here on Königsallee, the famous "Kö", the boutiques of the big designers and jewellers are right next door to each other. Cartier, Joop, Versace, Dior, Tiffany. The street is the pride of the city. And a last biotope of cycling. For the 47th time, cyclists have just made their way round the city moat in the Rund um die Kö race - out the Kö on the west side, down the Kö on the east side, the finish line of the Bundesliga race is right in front of the Cartier shop. In the end, a furious sprint for the last points in the final race, which marked the biggest appearance of cycling in the city's history to date. "On the trail of the Tour" was the name of the city's first major cycling day - no fewer than 13 cycling races for all ages and abilities took place from morning until sunset. "This day was an enrichment for Düsseldorf," was Sascha Grünewald's verdict at the end. The organiser of Rund um die Kö is certainly biased when it comes to cycling and its importance in the city. But the traditional criterium in the city centre has sometimes seemed lost in recent years: as the last cycling race in the city, which once had just under a dozen events in the cycling calendar.
This is why Grünewald, Chairman of the SG Radschläger Düsseldorf cycling club, was prepared to give up the traditional date at the beginning of May and move the race to mid-September. Albeit with an anxious eye on the mighty plane trees on the Kö, because slippery leaves on the tarmac would have turned the lap race into a game of vabanque. "However, my fear that there would be a sea of leaves was not confirmed," says Grünewald - the trees kept their leaves on to celebrate the day. Just as well, after all, it was all for a great cause.
Enthusiasm and criticism
Because this September day was just the dress rehearsal for what will be possible in terms of cycling in Düsseldorf when the Tour de France starts from the city of 600,000 inhabitants on 1 and 2 July 2017. From a city that sometimes struggles with itself and its image. And in which cycling - unlike up the Rhine in Cologne - has always had a bit of a shadowy existence. Golf, tennis, driving - that's Düsseldorf, as cyclists like to say. That is set to change. With the help of the Tour de France, which is coming to the city thanks to a few lucky circumstances.
Sven Teutenberg, the ex-professional from Düsseldorf, has long been working on his lifelong dream of bringing the biggest cycling race in the world to his home city - the first attempt was made in 2005 under the now deceased Lord Mayor Joachim Erwin (CDU). In vain. Then, in autumn 2015, London cancelled its bid to host the Grand Départ 2017 - as the package of the first Tour stages is called - at short notice due to the expected costs. A call from Christian Prudhomme to Teutenberg, a quick conversation at the Tour headquarters, and a few weeks later the necessary council decision was made in Düsseldorf. "The tour is coming to the city," cheered the Düsseldorf party band Porno al Forno in their song "Kette rechts!", composed especially for the occasion.
Three days after the first major appearance of cycling in his city, Lord Mayor Thomas Geisel sits in his office in the town hall, with a view of the large banner for the "Grand Départ 2017" on the market square and takes the time to talk about his city, the tour and the bike before flying off to the twin city of Moscow. The project is important to him. So important, in fact, that critics accuse him of having gone it alone when deciding to organise the tour.
The SPD politician lives his enthusiasm for cycling: "It was a great experience to ride with really great cyclists on car-free roads through Düsseldorf and the surrounding area," says the mayor - not without pride he mentions the 34-km average that he achieved on the 46-kilometre distance of the Race am Rhein, his first cycling race. Right after the 2014 election, Teutenberg had the feeling that Geisel, a passionate marathon runner, could be the right man to give the Tour bid a boost. "The great thing about cycling is that you can really go the distance," says Geisel. Now he just has to infect the majority of his citizens with his enthusiasm, some of whom were quite disgruntled because around 200 cars had to be towed away and neighbourhoods cut off from traffic.
Cycling for all classes
Perhaps it was all a bit much to start with, says the head of the city - but they also wanted to gain experience. It started in the morning with the first Bundesliga race with Germany's best young talent, at lunchtime around 3,500 amateur cyclists took to the two courses of the Everyman Race, while throughout the day children, fixie riders, derny specialists, elite women and top amateurs competed one after the other on the Kö.
The Race am Rhein amateur race, which paralysed traffic in large parts of Düsseldorf and the surrounding area, was a test ride for the route of the second stage of the 2017 Tour de France. After just a few kilometres, the route went uphill to the racecourse, where the first points for the Tour mountain jersey will be awarded next year, and the best amateur cyclists took around two and a half minutes to complete the climb. Professional cyclists Christian Knees (Team Sky) and Nikias Arndt (Team Giant-Alpecin) rode in the first starting block and were amazed at the pace set by the amateur cyclists. Knees from Rheinbach was happy to come to the PromoTour: "We hope that it sends out a signal for cycling in Germany - especially for young cyclists," says the Sky pro.
It really was a day on which cycling came to the people and not the other way round. Birgit Bolduan has been thinking about taking part in a cycling race for years. The triathlete from neighbouring Hilden has been riding her racing bike regularly for 20 years and has ridden many Alpine passes, covering around 8,000 kilometres a year. But she always had great respect for taking part in a race. "I'd heard so much about crashes. I was scared," she remembers her reservations. Then she read about the premiere of the Race am Rhein in the newspaper. The first start was quickly decided - no opportunity could have come closer. And her reservations were wiped away after the premiere. "I'm infected," she says - with cycling fever. She immediately signed up for the next race - a few weeks later, on the island of Rügen.
And Birgit Bolduan is not the only one who has caught the bug. Porno al Forno, the Düsseldorf party band, sees the approaching start of the Tour as an opportunity - for cycling, but of course also for its own marketing. When it was announced last spring that Düsseldorf was planning to stage its first major "Jedermann" race through the city in the autumn, frontman Greg Gardena and his mates immediately had a brilliant idea: "It would be cool if we created our own cycling team," he says. They advertised for team members on Facebook and at the Düsseldorf funfair, and almost 40 men and women quickly applied and rode through the city as Team Porno al Forno - all in pink.
"We're notorious for being shrill and weird - and always a bit out of place," says Gardena. After the singer has caught his breath after the very first bike race of his life and pushed his carbon bike through the finishing lane, he tries to get his breath back for the musical performance on the stage in Steinstraße. "The cool thing was that we got all sorts of different people together - quite a mix, with guys who had never been on a racing bike before. That really flashed us," he says. Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll? Not at all! "Job, family, music, 2,000 kilometres a year" - that's the lifestyle of the Porno al Forno frontman, and he emphasises: "I'm still the most ambitious of us." He lent his buddy Armin Mosandl one of his racing bikes so that he could get fit for the race on the Rhine. After the first 75-kilometre ride together at the end of August, they could hardly get him off his bike, he was so exhausted. At the finish line, he reports an "incredibly great feeling" and hopes he can keep the loaner for a while longer. The 50-year-old sales engineer now has just one problem: "I need to talk to my family: I need to get a racing bike." By Christmas at the latest.
Cycling as a subculture
It is immediately apparent that this big cycling day in Düsseldorf has attracted a wide variety of people. There is no fear of contact: smooth, defined calves pose next to thick leg hair, tight-fitting cycling jerseys next to wide tops that probably went over the counter in the 1980s. Experienced racers next to debutants - this is how they stand in the starting blocks of the Jedermann race.
The evening before, the colourful mix of cyclists could also be seen at the warm-up in the trendy "Schicke Mütze" shop. Shop owner Carsten Wien is a survivor of the former punk scene in Ratinger Hof - Kraftwerk, Fehlfarben, Die Toten Hosen and DAF have all been spotted there. When Carsten Wien calls for free beer and 200 metre roller races, they come: the fixie freaks from Dortmund, the old Düsseldorf cycling veteran Dino Gerst with his dad, the former track world champion Andreas Bach from Erfurt, Strava disciples shouting their new records to each other, long manes and beards, shaved and unshaven - everyone pedals their lungs out on the roller for a few seconds before there's another Uerige Altbier on tap. Cycling is now a recognised part of the city's cool subculture.
That's the idea of the city council, Teutenberg, Grünewald and the people from the Schicke Mütze: to get people excited about cycling and cycling. Mayor Geisel is something like the leader of this movement because he wants to turn the car city of Düsseldorf into a cycling city - at least a little bit. The action plan is called "Radschlag Düsseldorf" - so that in future cyclists will no longer have to fight for their place between tram tracks and parked cars in many parts of the city. On this Sunday in September, the city belonged to them for the first time.
And to ensure that cycling has a long-term future, Grünewald wants to inspire more children and young people again. After all, after Sven Teutenberg and Ruben Zepunkte, it shouldn't be too long before another Düsseldorf hopeful emerges in professional cycling. That's why they came up with the Petit Départ: the eight to eleven-year-olds were allowed to do three or five laps of the Kö. Even the youngest were given a free ride on the Kö at the premiere and a big stage at the award ceremony afterwards. The boys and girls seemed shy. The large sunflowers presented to the best were less of a trophy than a hiding place at that moment. But you have to get used to the sudden attention for cycling and the cyclists.
"The unanimous opinion was: a successful day for Düsseldorf," was Harald Christ's verdict. According to the head of sales at Ergo-Versicherung, he has privately raised 250,000 euros for the Petit Départ. And the first parents have already got in touch to send their children for a trial training session after the first test ride on the Königsallee. The plan is to donate the club fee for the first year. The "Düsseldorf model for promoting exercise, sport and talent" is intended to make the city's children sporty, or even sportier. In primary schools and in the 5th and 6th grades, there will be a cycling triathlon consisting of a sprint test, a skills course and a cycling race on a 400-metre tartan track in the coming months. The best will be allowed to take part in the preliminary programme for next year's Grand Départ - if that's not motivation ...
Porn pink is spreading
Ruben Zepuntke is currently the best example of cycling promotion. He is currently looking for a new team, as his contract with Cannondale-Drapac is coming to an end. The son of Düsseldorf mayor Klaudia Zepuntke is certain that the fact that he comes from the host city of the next Tour de France is certainly not a disadvantage in the negotiations. He wants to take to the big stage next year - starting the Tour from his home town.
The new generation of racers deserves another big home race, says Greg Gardena. He saw Marcel Kittel's sprint victory at the Giro d'Italia last May, while visiting the Tour of Italy in the nearby Netherlands - and the enthusiasm that the cycling race generated there. "If that can be transferred to the lovely Rhineland, it will be a huge event here," he believes.
It is just getting dark in Düsseldorf - after a long day of cycling. Large low-loaders rumble through the streets in the city centre, heavily laden with barriers. Between them is the yellow bus, home to the competition jury and the course announcer for the race on the Kö. The big cycling show moves on for the time being. But it will be back. And when the Tour de France organisers and their entire team leave the city on the Rhine again on 2 July, also a Sunday, it will leave its mark. Düsseldorf should then be a city for cyclists, for cycling. Or at least have taken the first step in that direction. And after this September Sunday, you get the impression that nobody in Düsseldorf wants to believe that it could be any different.
The Tour de France 2017
Düsseldorf - and what's next?
