Cycling: Quite surprisingly, the BDR, the cycling club Unna and the organizers of the Velothon Berlin announced that the German U23 championship in road racing will be held next year as part of the Velothon Berlin on June 19th. One of the venues for the race will be the Straße des 17. Juni.
It had long been expected that the German U23 road racing championship would be held in Unna next year and organized by the local cycling club. In favor of the athletes, however, it has now been decided to hold the championship instead in the capital, as part of the Velothon on June 19th. The background is primarily the 2016 World Cup in Qatar, which takes place on a very flat course. The course designed in Unna would have been topographically much more demanding and would have made it more difficult for the athletes to prepare for the World Championships.
The disappointment at the cycling club in Unna cannot be completely hidden, but the event was given up voluntarily, as Reinhold Böhm describes: "The organizers of the Velothon approached us and described the approval situation in Berlin to us. We then agreed to a takeover of DM for the benefit of cycling.” However, the preparations that have already started and the many hours of work that have already flowed into planning and organization in Unna should not be in vain: "We are now applying for the DM 2018. RSV Unna is celebrating its 50th anniversary here [...] The extensive preparations that have been made for the DM 2016 can then be allowed to take place in 2018."
So while there is a lot of disappointment in Unna, there is of course great joy in Berlin. “The idea of aligning the U23 DM fits perfectly with the repositioning of the Velothon Berlin. In the future, we would like to emphasize even more clearly in Berlin that we believe that the bicycle is the modern tool for combining sport and mobility with fun and also to place this in a broader social context," says Velothon Berlin project manager Hendrik Heinz. The fact that this relocation from Unna to Berlin took place at such short notice was primarily due to bureaucratic reasons, since the Velothon Berlin had to be relocated from June 5th to June 19th and the corresponding permits were a long time coming. At the Velothon, everyone is grateful that it still worked out: "Accordingly, we would like to thank the organizers of RSV Unna and also the BDR for the quick and uncomplicated support."
On site, the Berliner Radsportverband eV will be responsible for the implementation of the U23 DM. The course sometimes leads over the Straße des 17. Juni and past the Victory Column - great and spectacular pictures are guaranteed. The championship will replace the professional race, which traditionally takes place as part of the Velothon Berlin - but this will take place again in 2017. The amateur race with over 15.000 participants will of course remain untouched.