IN BRIEF
The German Cycling federation handed Amaury Sport Organisation the German bid for the Grand Départ of the 2029 Tour de France on 29 July, for Berlin and central Germany. The file plays the symbolic card: 2029 will mark forty years since the Peaceful Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The handover took place at the Bundestag, in front of A.S.O. managing director Yann Le Moënner and Tour director Christian Prudhomme, with a piece of the Wall slipped into the package. Berlin, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and the federal government are jointly backing a project costed at €20 million to €25 million. According to Sportschau, A.S.O. will decide without the Länder, most likely in early 2027.
| Edition targeted | Grand Départ of the 2029 Tour de France |
| Territories | Berlin and central Germany (Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia) |
| Official applicant | German Cycling e.V., bid initiated by Grand Départ Allemagne e.V. |
| Bid Book submitted | 29 July 2026, Jakob-Kaiser-Haus of the Bundestag |
| Estimated cost | €20 million to €25 million (federal government, Länder, sponsors) |
| Hoped-for benefits | 12 million visitors, around €150 million |
| Decision | A.S.O. alone, expected in early 2027 |
Some bid files are handed over in a cardboard folder. This one arrived with a piece of the Berlin Wall. On 29 July, in the Bundestag’s Jakob-Kaiser-Haus, the German Cycling federation officially handed Amaury Sport Organisation the Bid Book of the German candidacy for the Grand Départ of the 2029 Tour de France. Facing them, A.S.O. managing director Yann Le Moënner and Tour director Christian Prudhomme.
A 2029 Tour de France timed to the fortieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall
The whole bid rests on one date. “The year 2029 marks the 40th anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution, an important jubilee for the whole of Germany,” Elisabeth Kaiser, minister of state and the federal government’s commissioner for eastern Germany, explains in the press release. The bid intends to make the race start as much a reminder of November 1989 as a bike race, and to tie it to Franco-German friendship.
Berlin has in fact been through this before, but on the other side of history. “Berlin already shares a history with the Tour de France: in 1987, the Tour ran along the Berlin Wall, a moment seen around the world as a symbol of freedom,” recalls governing mayor Kai Wegner. For 2029, he speaks of a prologue in Berlin, then stages in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia.
Rudolf Scharping, honorary president of German Cycling and a board member of Grand Départ Allemagne e.V., sums up the intention: “A 2029 Grand Départ would be far more than a sporting event. It offers the chance to thank the people who opened the way to freedom and German unity, and at the same time to honour the great cycling tradition, particularly in eastern Germany.”
Four state governments behind the German bid
The political set-up is unusual. The file was initiated and written by the association Grand Départ Allemagne e.V., with the participation of the Länder of Berlin, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia; it was German Cycling e.V. that filed it with A.S.O. as the official applicant, with the backing of the federal government. The four state governments concerned were present at the handover: Kai Wegner for Berlin, and minister-presidents Michael Kretschmer (Saxony), Sven Schulze (Saxony-Anhalt) and Mario Voigt (Thuringia).
“The joint bid from Berlin, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia is a great chance to bring the 2029 Grand Départ to Germany,” said Michael Kretschmer. The same man nonetheless set a limit in front of MDR’s cameras: the financial effort must “stay within limits”. The project’s backers are counting on a budget of €20 million to €25 million, carried by the federal government, the Länder and sponsors, for twelve million expected visitors and hoped-for economic benefits of around €150 million.
A.S.O. will decide alone, probably in early 2027
Christian Prudhomme sounded interested, at the Brandenburg Gate, in front of MDR’s cameras:
The bid handed to us today is without any doubt extremely attractive. We will examine it with the greatest attention, even though we had already received some first information about it. It is an extremely convincing project.
Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France director
He also pointed to what sets this file apart from the others: “The difference with the German bid is that it is closely tied in time to the historic jubilee of the fall of the Wall. That symbolic link cannot simply be put off to a later date.”
The line is a clever one, and it says something about how Grands Départs work: a bid built on an anniversary cannot be kept waiting another year. Still, according to Sportschau, the decision belongs to A.S.O. without the bidding authorities, and it is expected in early 2027. Until then, Slovenia — Tadej Pogacar’s home country — and Prague are named by Sportschau among the contenders in the running. The calendar for the next starts, for its part, is already settled: Barcelona in 2026, the United Kingdom in 2027, Reims in 2028.
On the German side, confidence is on display. Andreas Prokop, of the Leipzig-based association behind the bid, summed up the day on MDR: “As of today, we are even more optimistic about our chances of pulling it off. It was an absolute milestone.”
