Düsseldorf has decked itself out for the Grand Départ

Metre-high cartwheelers in the winning jerseys of the Tour de France, flagged streets and decorated shop windows – Düsseldorf has dressed itself colourfully for the Grand Départ. During a tour of the inner city and the old town, the Mayor Thomas Geisel and the Mayor Günter Karen-Jungen, chairman of the Kleine Kommission Grand Départ Düsseldorf 2017, showed the Tour Director Christian Prudhomme some particularly beautiful spots.

Mayor Thomas Geisel: "Allez Le Tour - the start of the world’s biggest cycling event is now also visible in the cityscape! Whether with flowers, flags, banners, cartwheelers or special coverings such as in the underground station Heinrich-Heine-Allee: Düsseldorf welcomes the start of the Tour de France. I am especially pleased that many business people have also creatively dressed their shop windows."

Tour Director Christian Prudhomme: "For a week, the city of Dusseldorf will live intensively to the rhythms and the colours of the Tour de France. The mobilisation of the municipal services, the public transport providers and also the shopkeepers reflects the dynamic attitude of the city of Dusseldorf and reminds us of the power of the Tour de France to bring people together and unite."

At Steigenberger Parkhotel it was time for some pedal power
At Steigenberger Parkhotel, the Tour organisers were first presented their official bikes for their time in Düsseldorf by the authorised officer Armin Weiß from Radstation Düsseldorf. Because wherever possible, Christian Prudhomme and his colleagues will travel by bike during their stay in Düsseldorf.

Their route through the old town and inner city took Mayor Geisel, Mayor Karen-Jungen and Tour-Director Prudhomme past:

• Underground station Heinrich-Heine-Allee
• Bolker Straße
• Marktplatz with flags
• Cartwheelers in the town hall
• Shop window at Marktplatz, shop window Düsseldorf Tourismus GmbH
• Craft brewery "Uerige"
• and ended at the brewery "Zum Schiffchen".

Underground station Heinrich-Heine-Allee
The underground station Heinrich-Heine-Allee has been impressively designed. Large surfaces are used to display the schedule of the Grand Départ. "Willkommen Bonjour" covers almost the entire wall of the staircase leading to Heinrich-Heine-Allee – guests from all over the world are greeted with a "Welcome" print when ascending to Heinrich-Heine-Platz. Central core element: an ever-recurring stylised cyclist with the special helmet for the time trials. Visually, the surfaces are designed to give the impression that the cyclists are riding up the stairs. Everywhere the big event is alluded to: on the sides of the escalators, on the steps and on the ceilings. Heinrich-Heine-Allee is thus a real city-dressing focus.

Bolker Straße
Banners and bunting as far as the eye can see: two welcome flags in yellow and green adorn Bolker Straße. They are 8 metres wide, 70 centimetres high and printed on both sides. In addition, 14 chains with small flags hang there, which together make up a total length of more than 190 metres of flag decorations. Two big Grand Départ flags round off the city-dressing in Bolker Straße.

Marktplatz
The state capital of Düsseldorf can also hardly wait for the start of the Tour de France. Two Tour de France flags have been hoisted. Alongside them, the flag of the state capital of Dusseldorf and the flag of France are blowing. Grand Départ banners also decorate the building of the city treasurer’s office.

Metre-high Tour-de-France cartwheelers
Two-by-two-metre cartwheel figures in the winners’ jerseys of the Tour de France are an eyecatcher in the cityscape of Düsseldorf. The four giant figures made of fibreglass-reinforced plastic were present at Düsseldorf Tourismus GmbH (DT) and have now been dressed in the colours of the Tour De France points jerseys. The white cartwheeler stands at the corner Haroldstraße/Graf-Adolf-Straße, the white cartwheeler with red polka dots at Südring and the green "sprinter"- cartwheeler at Mörsenbroicher Ei. The cartwheeler in the yellow of the Tour leader first stood at Heinrich-Heine-Allee, but has moved to the town hall for the start of the Tour, where he is to be signed by the Tour participants.

"Uerige"
The bass at the craft brewery "Uerige" has also been redressed on the occasion of the Tour de France in Düsseldorf. It’s new Tour outfit, the leader’s yellow jersey, was inspected by Mayor Geisel, Mayor Karen-Jungen and Tour Director Prudhomme.

"Zum Schiffchen"
At the brewery "Zum Schiffchen", the anticipation of the start of the Tour in Düsseldorf is also growing. The studio MicMac and the brewery organised an art project under the title "Kommt Zeit, kommt Rad" at the end of April.

16 bicycles provided by the Zukunftswerkstatt (future workshop) Düsseldorf were colourfully decorated during an action painting session in Hafenstraße under the guidance of the artist Bea Schröder. For this, the bicycles were placed on a 40-metre-long red carpet and painted.

The mayor Klaudia Zepuntke was also on the action painting team and, dressed in protective overalls, actively helped to colourfully design the pre-primed bikes. Afterwards, the 16 art objects were fixed to the external facade of the brewery as a visible sign of anticipation of the start of the legendary French Grand Tour in Düsseldorf.

City dressing in Düsseldorf
The whole of Düsseldorf is looking forward to the Grand Départ and wants to show it too. The city dressing was designed in the communication design of the Grand Départ. A central element is always the logo of the Grand Départ and, as an icon, the stylised cyclist with the special aerodynamic helmet for the time trials. In terms of the colour - and sometimes also the motif – the design is based on the colours of the Tour de France points jerseys.

Billboards, flags, and banners can be found all over the city: in the old town alone, there are 690 metres of flag chains. Five infoscreens in the underground stations of the Rheinbahn show Grand Départ commercials. 200 vehicles of AWISTA, 20 buses and two trams of the Rheinbahn and four HopOn HopOff buses are branded. The following are also equipped with branding: the Radstation (bike station) at the main station, the bridge Rotterdamer Straße/ Nordpark and the Theodor-Heuss bridge above Cecilienallee. Eleven footbridges set up for the period of the Grand Départ are also used for the city dressing.

The gardeners of the state capital of Düsseldorf have already begun to discuss the colors and emblems of the Tour de France. The flower buckets in the urban area have all been planted in the tour colors. Either in blue-white-red for the French national flag or in the different jersey colors - white, green, white with red dots or yellow. The Nordpark - located in the start and finish area of ​​the Grand Depart - also shows the tour-motifs in all flower tubs.

All the press releases on the Grand Départ Düsseldorf 2017: www.duesseldorf.de/letour/medienportal/alle-meldungen.html

Photos and event maps for editorial reporting are available here: www.duesseldorf.de/letour/medienportal/bildarchiv.html

Programme: www.duesseldorf.de/fileadmin/Amt13/grand_depart/pdf/GD17_Tourguide_D_O nline.pdf

ASO:
Press releases: www.letour.fr/le-tour/2017/us/press-release.html

Photos & videos: www.letour.fr/le-tour/2017/us/gallery.html