Tour de France in Düsseldorf - ASO chooses the state capital Düsseldorf to host the Grand Départ 2017

The ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation) today announced that the Grand Départ of the most famous bike race in the world will be held in North Rhine-Westphalia's state capital of Düsseldorf in 2017.

Lord Mayor Thomas Geisel said: "It is both an honour and a challenge - we are looking forward to being a good host to the world. It makes me very proud that our concept of a cycling sport festival for everyone and a cycling campaign as part of the Tour de France to promote the bicycle as a means of transport convinced the ASO. Düsseldorf is mad about sports - and we aim to prove it."

City Director and Head of the Sports Department Burkhard Hintzsche said: "Düsseldorf loves sports and is a sports city! The hosting of the Tour de France will attract great attention to our city not only from within Germany but from all over the world - not least because it is also hosting the Table Tennis World Cup and the Triathlon European Cup in 2017."

"What's more the Tour de France will also act as a strong tailwind for our Cycling Campaign," added Head of the Traffic Department Dr. Stephan Keller. "The bicycle is the means of transport of the future in the city centre and we want to give it the right amount of attention in our initiatives and with our planned campaign. The Tour de France will support these efforts and increase awareness many times over."

It is indeed true that the bicycle plays a special role in the state capital - and Düsseldorf has set itself ambitious goals in this connection.

The proportion of bicycle traffic to general traffic is to be increased from currently 14 to 25 percent. The focus is to be placed on implementing a main bicycle network across the city with a total length of about 300 kilometres, consisting of around 700 individual initiatives. The city administration will also promote the bicycle as the means of transport of the future with the help of a professional communication, advertising and marketing campaign. The campaign will start in spring 2016 and is initially scheduled to run for two years.

The now successful application was agreed by the Düsseldorf City Council on 5 November.

The sporting part of the Grand Départ officially starts with the presentation of the teams on Thursday. The official team training follows on Friday and this has always attracted a great deal of spectators in the past. The opening event will take place as an individual time trial on Saturday. On Sunday, the Grand Départ will come to an end and the second stage will begin and will also be broadcast live on television. The hosting of the Grand Départ will also include the following events:

• Media and PR event for the general public 100 days before the start
• Official dinner on the evening before the official start
• Gala event "Le Nutt de Tour"
• 5 pavilions in the village for guests of the city
• "Cycling for Everyone" event
• Public fan festival with live broadcast on the big screen

 In addition to other projects relating to the cycling campaign (e.g. "Radaktiv" - cycling day event), cultural cooperation projects (e.g. "Nacht der Museen" - long museum night) are also planned.

Numerous prominent supporters from the worlds of business, sports and society had already offered their help in the run-up to the application. Among them were the German cycle racing professionals André Greipel, Marcel Sieberg, Tony Martin and Ruben Zepuntke.