Cycling’s coming home? Copenhagen gears up for Tour de France start

Bike-friendly Copenhagen is gearing as much as host the beginning of the world’s most well-known biking race.

The Tour de France will start within the Danish capital on Friday, a spectacle scheduled right here in 2021 however postponed because of the COVID pandemic. 

“It’s actually superb to be welcoming the world’s best biking race!” Copenhagen’s Lord Mayor Sophie Hæstorp Andersen informed Euronews.

“To us, the Tour de France is a superb event to advertise the well-known Danish biking tradition even additional and encourage everybody to go biking as an alternative of driving. 

“As a result of to Danes and Copenhageners, biking isn’t just a sport. It’s a lifestyle, and we’re proud to be referred to as the world’s greatest biking metropolis.”

A complete of 176 athletes shall be hitting the roads in and round Copenhagen for a straightforward 13 kilometres crisscrossing metropolis streets and waterways, previous royal palaces and parks in entrance of 1000’s of cheering spectators. 

The gruelling work begins on the second day with a 199-km experience from Roskilde to Nyborg; adopted by day three which sees racers set off from the city of Vejle on a 182km path to Sønderborg. 

“I’m actually wanting ahead to the entire metropolis coming collectively across the Tour. I’ve been counting the times, and now we’re so shut! I can’t wait to see the riders on the town. Ever since I used to be younger, I’ve watched the Tour de France on TV, and each time I’ve the possibility, I am going biking myself,” mentioned Hæstorp Andersen.

Copenhagen specifically is taking advantage of this second within the highlight of the biking world. Native residents have watched as some widespread landmarks have been swathed in yellow, a nod to the yellow jersey given to race leaders. 

A fan park will present the progress of the Tour racers on large screens, and beginner cyclists will get to strive the Copenhagen route for themselves the day after the official race, because the Danish capital extends the celebrations into the weekend with a “pageant of biking” that is anticipated to draw 20,000 folks. 

“Copenhagen is so prepared and the entire metropolis is already buzzing with enthusiasm. Biking lanes have been painted within the iconic yellow color, flags have been put up alongside the route and our shops have adorned their home windows with Tour de France merch,” mentioned the Mayor.

Biking’s coming dwelling

When you suppose there is a sure feeling that “biking’s coming dwelling” — to borrow a phrase — in Copenhagen then you definitely’d be proper. 

The Danes have lengthy championed biking, and Copenhagen alone has greater than 400km miles of motorcycle lanes; a “inexperienced wave” gentle system that enables cyclists to experience at a continuing velocity and by no means be stopped by site visitors lights in the event that they time their journeys good on widespread routes; and trash cans in conjunction with bike lanes angled in direction of the oncoming cyclists.

Town even has its personal time period in city planning: to “Copenhagenise” means to prioritise pedestrian and bike customers as an alternative of automobiles. 

“The Danish mentality: we wish to be impartial, however we nonetheless wish to be social collectively. It is a small nation, small distances; you do not have mountains. So I assume that is why lots of people might see that the bicycle is a very nice strategy to transport your self,” mentioned Jens Peter Hansen, president of the Danish Cyclists’ Federation. 

Authorities in Copenhagen are placing their cash the place their mouth is, spending greater than €100 million within the final 15 years to facilitate two-wheel journey: with 12 “motorways” solely dedicated to cyclists and 5 devoted bridges – and round 15% of all journeys within the Nordic nation are made by bike.

“Lots of people in Denmark take duty for themselves and for his or her well being, but in addition for the local weather. That is why we experience bicycles,” Hansen mentioned. 

Cheaper than public transport

Friday’s Grand Départ marks essentially the most northerly stage of the Tour de France ever, a reward partly for the eagerness Danes present yearly of their enthusiasm for the competitors. 

Within the capital, they estimate pedal-power saves a million days of labor stoppage and makes greater than €130 million in financial savings yearly.

“It is manner cheaper than public transport, than renting automobiles or proudly owning a automotive, and on prime of that, you get round manner faster as nicely. So, throughout, it is good for you, it is low-cost, it is quick,” says Mads, a neighborhood resident who makes use of his bike to get round. 

Based on figures from the promotional organisation Biking Embassy, the morbidity of adults who use their bicycles day by day is 30% decrease than that of non-cyclists.

But Danes are biking lower than 20 years in the past, a pattern authorities hope to reverse with the Tour.

“I feel it is so inspiring to have the world’s best biking race right here… after we see the skilled cyclists the younger youngsters additionally need to stand up on their bikes,” says Copenhagen Mayor Hæstorp Andersen.

“Copenhagen is so prepared and the entire metropolis is already buzzing with enthusiasm.”