Statements from the 2023 winners

Dear participants in the CITY CYCLING campaign,

The enthusiasm for CITY CYCLING was once again tangible throughout the community this year. As mayor of the municipality of Altshausen, I’m very proud to have once again taken first place among the municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants.

Who would have thought that the municipality of Altshausen with its 4,100 inhabitants would repeat its success of 2020, 2021 and 2022 again in 2023?

The enthusiasm for participating in CITY CYCLING is almost contagious in my community. More than 1,100 cyclists signed up to over 70 teams and cycled an incredible 324,730 kilometres for our community.

Many of the participants could hardly wait to get cycling. This commitment shows that our cyclists actively want to do something for both the environment and their health. Cycling is not only environmentally friendly, but also encourages people to be active and fosters the sense of community – and that not only during the three CITY CYCLING weeks.

It is my pleasure to support our sports-enthusiastic CITY CYCLING organiser Michael Epp in the planning and implementation of new ideas.

With its many motivated cyclists, the community showed once again this year that we’re on the right track here in Altshausen when it comes to sustainable mobility and environmental protection. I was also very pleased about our secondary school placing first in SCHULRADELN in Baden-Württemberg; this achievement was the icing on the cake of this year’s CITY CYCLING campaign.

I look forward to CITY CYCLING in the coming year, wish all cyclists safe and accident-free travel and hope to see everyone getting involved again in 2024.

Photo: Michael Epp

Cycling plays a key role in our climate protection endeavours, hence it’s a very good sign that Oranienbaum-Wörlitz has now joined the CITY CYCLING initiative. More than 550 of our approximately 8,100 inhabitants took part and covered a total of 115,000 kilometres by bike. Oranienbaum-Wörlitz achieved an outstanding result and did something good for each individual participant and for climate protection too during the friendly competition.

We’d like to thank all of the cyclists who got involved and look forward to the next CITY CYCLING in 2024.

Photo: Ms. Müller

First place for the fourth time in a row – we’re proud of this success, which naturally also spurs us on to defend our title again next year. We’ll definitely find enough people up for the challenge, too, as CITY CYCLING has since become firmly established in Tuttlingen.

Our successes not only show that the people of Tuttlingen are physically active though, but also that sustainable transport policies that are in keeping with our times are increasingly also being established in rural areas. After all, CITY CYCLING is not just a sporting competition. Rather, it is also a statement in favour of bicycles as an everyday mode of transport. The fact that they are becoming increasingly popular also encourages us to further expand our town’s cycling network. Particularly in the coming year, important decisions will need to be made in Tuttlingen with regard to redevelopment of the central areas along the River Danube. Campaigns such as CITY CYCLING provide the necessary publicity and reinforce the transition towards mobility that lends greater weight to alternatives to cars than in the past.

Photo: The town of Tuttlingen

CITY CYCLING is a fixture in Borken’s annual event calendar. For seven years now, it’s been the same procedure as every year in our district town at the start of May, namely: “On your bikes, get set, go!” Cyclists big and small, young and old, families, neighbourhoods, friends, work colleagues, daycare centres, clubs and schoolchildren come together in teams to cover kilometres by bike and actively contribute to climate protection with a great deal of fun and enthusiasm.

This year, 2,256 cyclists in 90 teams took part in Borken and covered 434,775 kilometres, helping to avoid 70 tonnes of CO₂. This is an outstanding achievement!

I’m very proud that Borken once again ranked third in the international CITY CYCLING competition with this result. Congratulations to all participants. It really is a great honour!

Here in Borken, we believe that it is particularly important to get children and young people interested in sustainable mobility. I’m therefore delighted that our schools also actively participated in North Rhine-Westphalia’s Schulradeln campaign in 2023 – to great success. Astrid Lindgren primary school in Burlo is even among the finalists – a huge congratulations to all of the children!

In Borken, all generations cycle and bicycles accompany us throughout our lives – from balance bike to e-bike. Making cycling appealing and safe and expanding the cycling infrastructure in our district town are therefore very important to us in Borken. Our renewed success in the CITY CYCLING competition confirms that we’re on the right track when it comes to cycling.

All participants can be proud: together we have achieved great things – and at the same time made an important contribution to protecting the climate. I’m already looking forward to next year’s CITY CYCLING campaign in Borken when it’ll once again time to say: “On your bikes, get set, go!”

Photo: The town of Borken

Stendal took part in CITY CYCLING for the first time and is delighted to have been named “Best Newcomer”. Among the municipalities in our population group participating in CITY CYCLING for the first time, we were the municipality to cycle the most kilometres!

Countless day-care centres, schools, companies and even a museum formed teams. It was a fair competition that was thoroughly enjoyed by all! And bicycles were promoted as an environmentally-friendly and inexpensive mode of transport in the process.

As a municipality, we’ve also received countless suggestions for improving our cycling infrastructure, which we naturally wish to address together with all of the responsible local and state authorities.

CITY CYCLING was a complete success in Stendal. Our newcomer award is now an incentive for the Hanseatic town of Stendal to become even more bicycle-friendly. I cycle through the town myself every day and also see the shortcomings that exist. Bicycles remain an inexpensive and climate-friendly mode of transport nonetheless. The aim is to promote cycling as part of the transport concept.

Many thanks to all of those who cycled, who encouraged people to get involved in CITY CYCLING and of course also to CLIMATE ALLIANCE for the initiative!

Photo: The Hanseatic town of Stendal

I’m absolutely delighted that Rheine have once again taken first place in this year’s CITY CYCLING competition in the category of the “Most active municipality”.

First and foremost, I would like to thank all of the citizens of Rheine (also on behalf of the local councillors), who got involved and helped us to achieve this outstanding result together.

For us, CITY CYCLING is more than just a competition though. In Rheine, we see cycling as an important component of the mobility transition.

We want faster, safer and more convenient cycle path connections in the town and have managed to increase cycling’s share in the modal mix from 27% to 31% in recent years. We don’t intend to stop there, though, and have set ourselves the target of increasing this to 40% by 2030.

Despite all of the work that still lies ahead of us, we don’t want the fun of cycling to fall by the wayside. Which is why I’m already looking forward to CITY CYCLING in 2024 – with countless enthusiastic cyclists.

Photo: The town of Rheine

People have always cycled a lot and with success here in Bamberg: our citizens use their bikes more than the citizens of many other cities do. It is therefore most pleasing that Bamberg has placed third in Germany among the municipalities with between 50,000 and 99,000 inhabitants. What an outstanding achievement!

This year, we experienced a real boom in participants in the local campaign, which took place in Bamberg from 12 June until 2 July 2023: 2,825 cyclists in 130 teams took part in the three-week campaign – so almost 1,000 more participants than in the previous year. An impressive 570,822 kilometres were covered in total, avoiding 92 tonnes of CO₂. Families, friends, companies, clubs, schools and kindergartens could take part and collect kilometres. My heartfelt thanks to you all.

I’m delighted with the great commitment shown by all participants. Bamberg is an enthusiastic cycling town and we will continue to support this project in the future.

Photo: Stadtarchiv Bamberg, Jürgen Schraudner

My confidence last year was not disappointed. I’m delighted that the district of Steinfurt has once again taken first place in the category of “Most active municipality” in 2023 – for the fourth time since we first participated in 2018. We’re equally pleased with our sixth place in the national ranking with around 3.3 million kilometres cycled. With the cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Leipzig as well as the Hanover region, the only municipalities that placed higher than us in the ranking have significantly more inhabitants than us. Our achievements in the CITY CYCLING campaign also demonstrate the added value of our inter-municipal climate protection network. A district-wide campaign involving all 24 cities and municipalities doesn’t exist everywhere – hence I’m particularly proud of this.

Our success in the CITY CYCLING campaign is also a reflection of the district-wide cycling concept we’ve implemented. It provides for more fast, safe and convenient cycle path connections between the 24 towns and municipalities in the Steinfurt district. With the first cycle route in the district of Steinfurt known as the “Triangel” (literally “triangle”), we’ve already launched a concrete project that optimally meets the objectives of the transition to sustainable mobility, which has also attracted a great deal of attention outside of the district. This cycle route offers convenient links between six municipalities in the district of Steinfurt via well-developed cycling infrastructure. Giving citizens the opportunity to complete everyday journeys to work, school or college, to the shops and in their leisure time in a climate-friendly way by bike – and perhaps also providing newcomers with an incentive to take part in CITY CYCLING in the future.

My heartfelt thanks to the 15,332 cyclists who contributed to this great overall result and helped us avoid a total of 540 tonnes of CO₂ by using their bikes.

Photo: Dorothea Böing

I’m delighted that the district of Borken was once again able to place second in the category of “Most active municipality” among the municipalities with 100,000 to 499,999 inhabitants in this year. Though we narrowly missed out on the overall victory, Westmünsterland has once again demonstrated impressively that it is rightly among the most cycling-friendly regions in Germany – and we can be very proud of that!

Our district affords excellent infrastructure, with a cycle path network that today covers around 1,250 kilometres. This is because cycling is a tradition here – not only for leisure, but also for many other purposes where the switch from car to bike is becoming more and more natural, such as the journey to work. We all contribute to environmental protection in this way and do something for our own health, too.

The district of Borken has participated in the CITY CYCLING campaign with many of the towns and municipalities in the district since 2017. We’ve managed to increase the total kilometres covered every single year. In 2023, all 17 municipalities in the district participated for the second time in a row. Not least because of this, we were once again able to sensationally beat our own record from the previous year by more than half a million kilometres. This year, a total of 17,167 cyclists cycled an incredible 3,195,925 kilometres in 977 teams.

My heartfelt thanks to all of the cyclists from the district of Borken who got involved. I would also like to sincerely thank the CITY CYCLING team for implementing the national campaign, which was once again excellent. I’m already very much looking forward to the 2024 CITY CYCLING campaign!

Photo: The district of Borken

The citizens of the 21 towns and municipalities in the Hanover region once again set new records during CITY CYCLING: the members of our regional parliament took second place in the category of “Most active local parliaments” in our population category for the first time and the number of kilometres cycled and the total number of participants also increased again compared to the previous years!

I’m delighted that so many different people from the region have been taking part in CITY CYCLING with such enthusiasm for so many years now. With our mobility transition initiative, we’ve set ourselves ambitious goals to make cycling even more attractive and to increase the number of journeys made by bike in the future. A convenient local transport network and well-developed bike paths are key to making mobility more sustainable and to achieving our goal of being a climate-neutral region by 2035. CITY CYCLING provides excellent support in this! Our thanks go to Climate Alliance and our local coordinators and supporters as well as to all cyclists. The Hanover region will of course be back again next year!

Foto: The Hannover Region

Dear participants in the CITY CYCLING campaign,

This year, the municipality of Eschelbronn once again participated in CITY CYCLING with great enthusiasm. Following a record result last year, Eschelbronn’s cyclists again achieved remarkable feats. 244 cyclists covered a total of 72,193 kilometres by bike. This earned us first place in the rural district for the most kilometres per inhabitant. The team spirit and sense of community experienced were particularly impressive – as were the figures, of course!

Something tangible is happening here in our small Kraichgau community. Topics such as cycling, climate protection, community and competition have brought together people, who rarely have anything to do with each other otherwise. In times of an increasingly individual society, this is a very pleasing turn of events.

Our local parliamentarians were particularly active again, too: With an average of 396 kilometres per person, they took first place in the national ranking of “Most active local parliaments”. I am especially pleased with this ranking and congratulate our local council wholeheartedly on this achievement.

The CITY CYCLING campaign has now become established here – and this is most pleasing. The campaign not only appeals to commuters, but also to leisure cyclists who leave their car at home and instead use their bike during trips. Time and again, people experience first-hand that cycling together is not only fun and good for them, but also for the environment and the climate. Because fewer cars means more bicycles – and this in turn helps to reduce the amount of traffic on our roads.

I wish us all many wonderful and accident-free kilometres travelled by bike and look forward to next year’s CITY CYCLING.

A success story

It all began with the municipal council voting in favour of participating in CITY CYCLING, a minor accident on my part and countless active cyclists – and ended with a sensational outcome: a great many enthusiastic participants who cycled for 21 days in the finest of weather between 17 June and 7 July 2023 during our first CITY CYCLING campaign. Seventeen teams with a total of 230 cyclists covered 64,324 kilometres and thus cycled more than once around the world.

I’m delighted that this year’s CITY CYCLING campaign was such a success in our municipality!

It’s a remarkable testimony to the dedication and enthusiasm in our community. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this achievement – whether by getting on their bike, organising events or supporting our cycling initiatives.

These awards not only demonstrate our commitment to more sustainable mobility, but also the community spirit that is alive and well in Weilheim.

The participants’ motivation was impressive: genuine enthusiasm developed from the preliminary idea to take part and initial hesitance to register. This shows just how much the citizens of Weilheim value cycling. The fun of cycling helped us to overcome the initial challenges and has since become a real joy. Encouraging climate-neutral forms of mobility such as walking, cycling and using public transport is key to climate protection. The experience with CITY CYCLING shows that we as a community can play a decisive role in motivating people to use sustainable modes of transport and thus actively contribute to environmental protection.

Our local council deserves a special mention for its wholehearted support for CITY CYCLING.

Our heartful thanks to everyone who worked so hard to help us achieve this fantastic result!

Photo: The municipality of Weilheim (Baden)

We covered a total of 368,000 kilometres by bike for our town, which is a very impressive achievement. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the eager participants for their commitment. A special thanks also goes to our local parliament, which earned the town of Rhede first place in the category of “Most active local parliaments” among the municipalities with between 10,000 and 49,999 inhabitants. With the distance covered by bike, we were even able to exceed our winning total from 2021 by quite a few kilometres.

The upward trend in kilometres in recent years is particularly pleasing. This shows that our town’s efforts to provide a well-developed and above all safe cycling network have already been successful. We wish to continue actively pursuing this goal. Because cycling should be fun and a climate-friendly option for people both young and old to get around Rhede.

Overall, our achievements show that the cyclists here are highly committed to climate protection. These are results that we can and will definitely build on in the coming years.

As proof that the mobility transition is a matter close to our hearts, Rhede’s CYCLE STAR, Mr Werner Messing (who incidentally also placed first among the CYCLE STARS!) and I will travel to the award ceremony in Cologne by bike and also cycle home again afterwards.

Photo: The town of Rhede

For us, CITY CYCLING is more than just a competition, as the campaign has helped to bring people from many generations together and motivated them to complete journeys by bike. At the same time, 25 of the 29 members of the local council collected a total of more than 5,500 kilometres during the campaign period. We look forward to CITY CYCLING in 2024!

Photo: Martina Buchholz

CITY CYCLING and Gunzenhausen simply go together. Cycling is not only active environmental protection, but also great fun and helps keep both your body and mind healthy. Especially after a busy day at work, there’s hardly anything more relaxing than getting on the saddle and pedalling.

Apart from the fun factor, the CITY CYCLING also has a very serious background. Combatting climate change and protecting our environment are social obligations that we must accept and consistently work on. We must establish sustainable foundations for future generations. Everyone can play a small part in shaping our planet. Let’s get involved; our children and their children will thank us.

This year, our town ranked first in the category of “Most active local parliament” among the municipalities with between 10,000 and 49,999 inhabitants. This fantastic achievement is also a reflection of the town’s great efforts to promote cycling in Gunzenhausen. Many members of the local parliament set a good example by getting on their bikes and encouraged their fellow citizens to do the same.

I wish Climate Alliance and CITY CYCLING many more successes. We live in challenging times and should commit to supporting our living space.

Photo: The town of Gunzenhausen

The participants in CITY CYCLING have managed to set new records for what is now the eighth time in a row and make the growing importance of cycling in our rural district of Bamberg clear. At the end of the three-week local campaign, 4,704 active cyclists in 220 teams, 17 schools and 37 daycare centres from all 36 municipalities in the rural district had covered a record total of 1,030,331 kilometres – that’s almost 40 times around the globe! It is thanks to all of them that the district of Bamberg secured fifth place in the category of “Most kilometres cycled” among the 531 Bavarian municipalities participating in CITY CYCLING.

And what makes me particularly happy is that our 34 local politicians, who took part in CITY CYCLING, achieved a phenomenal first place in the category of “Most active local parliaments” among the municipalities with between 100,000 and 499,999 inhabitants with their muscle power and dedication.

The measures we have implemented over the years to extend the cycle paths in the rural district, set up mobility stations, advise local authorities, establish the metropolitan cycle path between Nürnberg and Bamberg as a convenient everyday cycle connection along the Main-Danube Canal and, last but not least, our involvement in CITY CYCLING are now paying off thanks to the increased commitment of our citizens. We’re well on the way to the future of mobility!

The rural district of Bamberg will definitely be back for CITY CYCLING 2024!

Photo: LRA Bamberg

I’m delighted that the city of Karlsruhe has won the title of “Best Newcomer” in the category of “Most active local parliament” among the municipalities with between 100,000 and 499,999 inhabitants.

This shows the great affinity for cycling of both our local councillors and the entire population of Karlsruhe. I’m also very pleased that more than 4,500 cyclists participated in Karlsruhe’s CITY CYCLING premiere and covered over 870,000 kilometres by bike. This encourages us to continue promoting sustainable mobility and expanding the cycling infrastructure.

I’d like to thank all of the cyclists who support the city of Karlsruhe’s mobility transition at all times of the year. We’ll definitely take part in CITY CYCLING again next year, the local campaign will take place from 23 June to 13 July 2024. You can already start looking forward to it now!

Photo: The city of Karlsruhe

Nordhorn is a real cycling town, which is why CITY CYCLING has long been a fixture in our annual calendar. In 2023, we took part for the tenth time. To celebrate this anniversary, the people of Nordhorn covered more kilometres by bike than ever before.

This year, our city council was particularly active and thus also positioned itself very clearly on the importance of cycling in Nordhorn. It’s important that we not only establish the right framework conditions for the mobility of the future as politicians, but also set a good example ourselves. Hence we’re all absolutely delighted to have won the prize for the “Most active local parliament” in our population group.

We strive to be role models not only for the people of Nordhorn, but also for politicians and administrators in other municipalities. After all, the mobility transition as an essential component of climate protection, which is a large-scale task that requires everyone to pull together.

That’s why CITY CYCLING is more than just a competition for us in Nordhorn. Cycling is simply a pleasure. Here in Nordhorn, we’ve been treating bikes as equals to motorised traffic in urban and traffic planning for many years now. They should be the fast, comfortable, climate-neutral, healthy and therefore also preferred alternative to motorised transport for all routes in Nordhorn.

Although cycling already has a modal share of over 40 percent, there’s still a lot to do for cycling in Nordhorn. Many cycle paths no longer meet the present-day requirements, for example in older residential areas. We also wish to continue to invest here in the coming years.

CITY CYCLING helps us to recognise issues in the cycling network. Because the more people cycle, the more they notice and draw politicians’ and the local administration’s attention to issues. CITY CYCLING is better suited than almost any other campaign to motivate people to switch to cycling. Not just for three weeks in the year, but also in the long term and sustainably. Which is why we look forward to continuing our involvement in the future!

Photo: a|w|sobott

Together, 10,398 cyclists cycled 2,608,214 kilometres in the rural district of Ravensburg this year, securing us third place in our population category. We also placed a little higher in the national ranking, finishing ninth overall. I’m very pleased with this outstanding achievement – and very proud. It once again shows that cycling is part of everyday life for people in our rural district and that the mobility transition is real.

My heartfelt thanks go to all of the cyclists as well as to all of the companies, schools, clubs, etc. that formed 552 cycling teams. I’d also like to thank the 26 participating municipalities in the rural district for their commitment. I’m particularly pleased that the municipality of Altshausen even managed to place first in the category of “Most active municipality with the most kilometres cycled” for the third time among the municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants.

The achievements of a number of individuals during the three weeks is also simply astounding. Four participants in particular should be mentioned here, each of whom covered more than 3,000 kilometres. Distance is not the decisive factor though. In fact, every single kilometre that each of us cycles is a positive contribution to climate protection and one’s own health. CITY CYCLING helps make everyday cycling fun and increases the motivation to use a bike instead of a car more often, even after the campaign has ended. As a rural district, we wish to live according to this principle and to share it with even more people. Which is why we’re already looking forward to next year’s CITY CYCLING campaign!

Photo: The Ravensburg District

Leipzig has been participating in CITY CYCLING since 2009, hence I’m all the more pleased that we were more successful than ever in this year’s competition. From 1 to 21 September, around 18,000 residents of Leipzig cycled over 3.5 million kilometres. Around 577 tonnes of carbon dioxide were avoided in the process – more than ever before.

This success illustrates something that has been happening in Leipzig for some time now: People are becoming increasingly enthusiastic about climate protection and sustainability. I see this enthusiasm as an important prerequisite for our common goal, namely to achieve climate neutrality in Leipzig by 2040.

At the same time, it’s an incentive for us to continue and further this commitment to climate protection and sustainable mobility beyond the annual three-week campaign – through continuous implementation of the cycling development plan, for example. By incentivising mobility in this way, we enable everyone to participate and thus facilitate fair space usage to the benefit of all citizens of our city.

In terms of the quality of life in our city, the advantages of bicycles over cars are also very clear: Bicycles are a fast, healthy, climate-friendly and space-saving mode of transport. And the CITY CYCLING campaign adds yet another important component: the joy of cycling together.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the participants who helped with such great energy and enthusiasm to make our city one of the most active cycling cities in Germany.

Photo: The city of Leipzig

Cycling has always been popular in Freiburg. A cycling network covering more than 400 kilometres and an enthusiastic cycling population have made the bicycle the most popular means of transport: More than one third of journeys within the city are completed by bike – we wish to increase this total even further, though, in order to advance the mobility transition. We’re currently developing a climate mobility plan comprising further ambitious measures to reduce emissions in the transport sector.

The fact that our local parliament is once again being acknowledged for its achievements during CITY CYCLING after claiming second place as the “Most active local parliament” in 2021 shows just how great the consensus for promoting cycling is on the decisive local level. I’m very pleased about this as we’ve overcome major challenges relating to the mobility transition, climate protection and sustainability. For this, I would like to thank our committed local councillors and all other participants in CITY CYCLING.

Photo: City of Freiburg / Fionn Große

With an impressive 17,785 active cyclists, we not only increased the number of participants, but also covered a total of 3.4 million kilometres by bike.

Congratulations to all of the teams who contributed to this great result! Your commitment has not only led to an impressive 558 tonnes of CO₂ being avoided, but also helped to further promote cycling in our city.

It is particularly pleasing that we were able to defend our title of “Most active local parliament” again this year. This is a clear sign that countless colleagues regularly use their bike as a means of urban transport.

I’d like to thank all participants, teams and supporters for their valuable contribution to climate protection and to promoting cycling in our city. Let’s now take this positive momentum and continue cycling for a sustainable future next year!

Photo: Michael Nagy / Landeshauptstadt München Presseamt

The landscape in the rural district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald is diverse and particularly easy to experience and enjoy by bike. This is not only the case for leisure cyclists and tourists, but also for ambitious athletes, who value the Black Forest as an excellent and challenging training ground. This makes me all the more enthusiastic about the response to CITY CYCLING in our rural district this year. Approximately 6,400 cyclists from 31 communities in the rural district organised in 410 teams covered more than 1.5 million kilometres by bike. This is not only a result that I can be proud of as District Administrator, but also one that must serve as an incentive to go one better next year. Almost 250 tonnes of CO2 could be avoided this year. By participating in CITY CYCLING, we were together able to actively contribute to climate protection. Cycling in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald rural district must be encouraged and supported even further. We’re working on this and are of course also already preparing for next year’s CITY CYCLING campaign.

Photo: Ben Kunstleben

Dear participants in the CITY CYCLING campaign,

This year, all 16 of the municipalities in the district of Kleve took part in CITY CYCLING as “climate partners” for what was the fourth time. The climate protection campaign took place from 29 May to 18 June according to the motto of “Use your bike, don’t sit in a car!” (““Fiets statt Autositz!”). The town of Kleve participated in CITY CYCLING for the eighth time this year; it was the town’s fourth year using the RADar reporting platform.

There are many good reasons to leave the car parked and cycle instead – to save petrol and avoid exhaust fumes and thus protect the environment and contribute to bicycle-friendly transport. A bicycle is often the most sensible mode of transport for the many short everyday journeys (to work, school, etc.).

The mayors got involved once again and took part in a relay ride with a baton handover. Local parliamentarians set a great example, too, and got on their bikes to encourage their fellow citizens to do the same. The town of Kleve took third place in Germany this year in the category of “Most active local parliament” in the 50,000 to 99,999 population group.

1,937 cyclists and 19 members of the town council participated in the town of Kleve. Together they covered a total of 434,239 km by bike and avoided 70 tonnes of CO₂.

The many cyclists once again helped to set new records for Kleve in terms of the kilometres covered and the number of participants.

Our schools were also particularly active again this year. With its “KonRAD for Future” school team, the Konrad-Adenauer-Gymnasium in Kleve took second place in North Rhine-Westphalia out of the total of 1,493 school teams, covering 119,009 kilometres. Third place went to the Cycling Stones from Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gymnasium, who cycled 118,703 kilometres.

Thanks to everyone involved and to all participants for their active contribution to climate protection!

Photo: Town of Kleve

We’re delighted that the town of Bocholt has once again made it onto the podium. The fact that it even came second is of course first and foremost thanks to the many citizens of Bocholt who got involved through their clubs and groups, with work colleagues or family, or simply as individuals. On average, each inhabitant cycled almost nine kilometres and together we covered almost 640,000 kilometres by bike – as the town administration, we’re very proud of these achievements.

CITY CYCLING is contagious – as is demonstrated by the large number of participating cities and municipalities all across Germany and the number of cyclists: alone in Bocholt, more than 2,600 people took part.

Second place in the national ranking is of course a special honour for the cycling town of Bocholt! It impressively demonstrates the special importance of bicycles in our town and region: as a company vehicle and leisure companion – and for leisurely rides at the weekends.

The town of Bocholt will gladly also participate in the campaign in the future. And we have of course already set our goal for the coming year: We wish to relegate the town of Rheine to second place in the 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants population group.

Photo: The city of Bocholt

We’re absolutely delighted to announced that our rural district has come third in the category of “Most active local parliament” among the municipalities with between 100,000 and 500,000 inhabitants.

Many thanks to all those who contributed to this outstanding success. Over 4,000 people (including 79 local politicians) took part in CITY CYCLING in 2023, sending a clear signal in favour of an environmentally-friendly and healthy lifestyle.

This award spurs us on to continue taking measures to promote cycling and reduce our CO₂ emissions.