It will be a major cross-border cycling event: in the coming summer, the Germans and the French are expected to cycle closer, including through the opening of the last closed Rhine crossing.
The “LaBicyclette” cycling day is scheduled for 9 July 2023 – 3,000 to 5,000 participants are expected, and more if the weather is good. If you’re really sporty, you can cycle a 102-kilometer route along the Rhine on this day. This leads from Neuenburg in Markgräflerland to Vogtsburg am Kaiserstuhl and back via the French side. But there are also shorter cross-border tours: 76, 50 or 13 kilometers long.
Five Rhine bridges are included in the event between 11:00 and 19:00 and major events will take place in three locations: at 15:00 in the Hartheim-Fessenhein area and at 17:00 between Breisach and Vogelgrun. The highlight is already scheduled for 1 pm, when the Rhine crossing in Vogtsburg-Burkheim will be opened. In future, cyclists and pedestrians will be able to go directly from there to Marckolsheim on the French side. The crossing is the last connection between Germany and France across the Rhine that has not yet been opened – the event is accordingly symbolic and politically significant, said German project coordinator Peter Kuhn of the Breisgau’s “Cross-border cooperation” department- Hochschwarzwald district office at the last general meeting of the Freiburg region, where the plans for the “LaBicyclette” were presented – the committee consists of representatives of the districts of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and Emmendingen and the city of Freiburg.
The Rhine crossing is a barrier belonging to the French energy company EDF. Plans to open the barrier to pedestrians and cyclists have been around for more than 20 years, but have since been scrapped. In 2017 there was a new beginning. And in 2021, the German and French sides finally agreed to implement the project. The total costs amount to about half a million euros.
The opening of the Rhine crossing is also linked to investments in better cross-border cycling. A new cycle path will be built on the French side, while crossings will be improved on the German side and signs will be posted in both languages. “The borders will be opened even further,” Dorothea Störr-Ritter, district administrator of the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district and president of the Freiburg region, told the general meeting. You described the bicycle day “La Bicyclette” as a “fragrance brand in cross-border cooperation”. Many different partners are involved in the event. The cooperation takes place mainly through two “cross-border local special associations” (GöZ), which have existed respectively since 1998 and 2003 and which include German and French municipalities.
