Thursday 18 September 2008 at 23h36
Initially published on 20 February 2008 at 11.52AM - update 18 September: Düsseldorf no longer a candidate
In addition to the Paris-Nice 2008 track, ASO yesterday also announced a list of potential candidates for the Tour de France 2010 Grand Départ.
After the start from Brest for the Tour de France 2008 and from Monaco for the Tour de France 2009, 2010 will be for Düsseldorf in Germany or for Rotterdam or Utrecht in The Netherlands.
The two Dutch cities were already official candidate for the Grand Départ in 2009 and had told they were slightly disappointed to hear that would be in Monaco. The last Tour de France start in the Netherlands was in 1996 with the prologue in Den Bosch. The Tour also passed in The Netherlands in 2006.
The first start abroad in the history of the Tour also was in The Netherlands: in Amsterdam in 1954. The total number of Tour starts in The Netherlands is 4: Amsterdam (1954), Scheveningen (1973), Leiden (1978) and Den Bosch (1996).
For Germany the last Grand Départ was in 1987 in Berlin (West). Before that start, there've been two others: Cologne (1965) and Frankfurt (1980). For 2010 Düsseldorf can bring the total number of Grands Départs in Germany to 4.
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Why these three cities?
These three cities have been put on the same list for 2010 since they are more or less in the same geographical area.Christian Prudhomme told the French press agency AFP that More and more cities are proposing to organise a Grand Départ. It's a coincidence that three of them, Utrecht, Rotterdam and Düsseldorf, are more or less in the same area.
Since we don't want to start from the same area in several following years, in order to satisfy all candidates, we have to choose one of these three cities for 2010.
The two cities which won't be chosen for 2010 can of course still remain a candidate for another start in the future since Christian Prudhomme explained that this of course won't have any influence on the candidature for the two other cities in the future if they still want.
UPDATE 18 September: Düsseldorf announced today it will no longer be a candidate for the organisation of the Grand Départ for the Tour de France 2010 and that means that it will definitely be a Dutch start since only Utrecht and Rotterdam are left (and the 2009 Vuelta a España is also already scheduled to start in The Netherlands).Last week the city of Düsseldorf already indicated there were some doubts about whether they would like to organise it and yesterday/today the final decision was taken for the city to no longer be a candidate.
In the German newspaper Rheinische Post the mayor, Dirk Elbers, indicates that the high costs (about 6 million euros) and the risk on new doping cases (like in any other type of top sport, no?!) would be the most important reasons for no longer being a candidate in addition to the fact that the German television might not even broadcast the Tour (in 2007 the German TV left the Tour after a doping case and for 2009 they have already announced they don't want to broadcast the Tour if Lance Armstrong participates).
The last time the Tour started in The Netherlands was in 1996 in Den Bosch. Earlier Grand Départs were in 1954 (Amsterdam, the very first Grand Départ outside France!), 1973 (Scheveningen) and 1978 (Leiden). door Thomas Vergouwen
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6 comments | 7985 views
this publication is published in: Tour de France | Tour de France 2010
by Dany45 over
cool
Ik neem aan dat de Tourdirectie meer geneigd zal zijn, na het vertrek van de tv-zenders ARD en ZDF uit de Tour 2007, om de start te gunnen aan een Nederlandse stad.
Dat zou inderdaad kunnen, maar zeker is het niet ... Ter informatie: ARD en ZDF zenden dit jaar weer gewoon de Tour uit. Hun contract loopt eind dit jaar af, dus hun beslissing over een verlenging van het contract kan inderdaad zeker meewegen in de beslissing van de organisatie van de Tour de France !
Vandaag was er een delegatie, waaronder de burgemeester en wethouder sport van Utrecht samen met Jan Janssen, bij de Tour aanwezig om te lobby-en voor het vertrek van de Tour de France in 2010... Het zal mij benieuwen, maar natuurlijk wel leuk!!
Salut
Selon un quotidien belge (la Meuse), après le départ néerlandais, un passage en Belgique pour les 65ans de notre Eddy Merckx national se confirmerait... avec une arrivée d'étape à Bruxelles-ville et un départ/arrivée en province de Liège les villes pressenties seraient Chaudfontaine, Verviers et Spa alors que l'étape du lendemain partirait de Visé. On connait les liens très importants entre ASO et la province de Liège (cf. L'organisation de la flèche wallonne et de Liège-Bastogne-Liège) c'est pourquoi cette piste me semble assez sérieuse...
Avant qui sait d'un retour du grand départ que Liège souhaiterait pour 2012...
Rotterdam dus is vandaag bekend gemaakt door de Gemeente Rotterdam!