Düsseldorf Düsseldorf

A flat urban time trial along the banks of the Rhine. At 14km it’s longer than a typical opening Prologue

Berlin has the nightlife, the marathon, the Philharmonic and Pride. Hamburg had the Beatles. Munich the football team. If Düsseldorf, the ninth-biggest city in Germany and not even the largest in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, was in search of a USP beyond the fashion industry and altbier, it now has one: the Grand Départ of the Tour de France.

The opening stage of the 2017 race will be a short-distance time trial which is longer than the oncetraditional Prologue that used to kick off the Tour, but also short enough at 14km to keep the riders well within the city’s bounds. It starts and finishes in the north of Düsseldorf, at the Messe exhibition centre, with the flat route following the curve of the river Rhine south towards the city centre. There’s not even a corner until four kilometres in, when the race crosses the river, dips south again, then crosses back, past the Rheinturm tower with its famous digital clock display reminding the riders what is at stake, and towards Aldstadt, the old town, which is known as the ‘longest bar in the world’, thanks to its many bars. The telegenic loop of Düsseldorf’s cityscape complete, the route finds the river again to head back to the Messe.

On the surface, it might appear designed for Tony Martin, the four-times world TT champion, for a home win. And the German might have been a certainty for the first yellow jersey of 2017 had Düsseldorf hosted the Grand Départ three or four years ago, when he was in his time trialling pomp. But it’s not a given – he has five Tour stage wins, but two have come in road stages and the other three in long TTs. His record in opening-day Tour TTs or Prologues is 8th-2nd-45th-2nd. Either way, this is a fast, fast course.