Dusseldorf has a bike race. And that's turning 50. Maybe someone should buy some cake, get some candles, and chill two bottles of bubbly. It could be that someone is coming to celebrate. On Sunday, September 23, 2018. From 09:00 in the morning to 18:00 in the evening. Sport, games, fun, excitement.

It actually sounds like a scoop: once a year, the well-known luxury mile of a well-known German city locks out the cars that usually dominate and celebrates a day all about the wheel. In the middle of the city. Races of all ages alternate, supplemented by events for children, a derny race in which the athletes chase after a rattling moped and recently even a fixed gear crit, the punk rocker among bike races.

The whole story has just one catch: in recent years it has taken place almost completely closed to the public. Why it is like that? A good question. But instead of quarreling with the circumstances, the omissions and mistakes of the past, the focus should be on the now and the future. Biking is booming. And in the course of everyday cycling, sporting performance on two wheels is gaining in importance. New clubs are formed and often refer to strengths that have made cycling clubs useful in the past: cycling together, sharing experiences in a group, standing for something together. Or to drive. And it can be just as simple at the somewhat dusty racing events: a little refreshed, advertised in a contemporary way, tradition and modernity charmingly combined: voila, there is the event that everyone who has fallen for happiness on two wheels has been waiting for.

In 1968, cyclists raced around the Kö for the first time. The race has seen many successful years since then, but also too many on the brink of oblivion. We all have the power to change this. On September 23, 2018 it's that time again. Let's hope that the organizers will open the windows wide before the birthday, air them well, wipe off the dust and offer us a day on the Königsallee that we will all talk about. Let's go there, cheer for the athletes, support the clubs, buy coffee, cake, soda, beer, whatever else there is to buy and make sure that in 2019 we don't feel like nobody knows about the big, great and important cycling day on the Königsallee.

Let's go - let's have a party. Let's rock the Kö. On Sunday.

We would like to thank everyone who has helped us in the last two weeks with advice, action and financial support so that we could push around the Kö.

Around the Kö is made possible by:

SG Radschläger * Life is a ride * Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf * G31 – Creative Consulting, Design & Communication * Blackbear Real Estate * Kern-Haus * Biehler Cycling * Merz Concept Tontechnik * Art Invest Real Estate * Printable * and many more...

Carsten Vienna

Chic hat

Around the Kö - Grand Prix of the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf

Around the Kö website: www.rundumdiekoe.de

Sunday, September 23, 2018, from 09:00 to 18:00. Koenigsallee Dusseldorf

Details via wheel net.

At 3:00 p.m.: Life-Is-A-Crit – Fixed Gear Race: With track bikes and a speed of 45 without brakes over the Kö. Realized by the team Life Is A Ride. Registration here .