Day 2: TdF Grand Départ Düsseldorf 2017 - ShowWhatYouLove

Day 2 of the Grand Départ celebrations in Düsseldorf was mainly filled with some press conferences at team hotels, sponsor retail outlets and the official ASO press centre.

I once again took a city bike (this time a lucky bike) from the Altstadt of Düsseldorf up to the exhibition space ("Messe") approximately 5km to the north, enjoying the fantastic cycle path facility that runs alongside the Rhine.  With my trusty new sidekick at my side - the Huawei P10, I set out to search for a few impressions of the day to show.

Outside the Messe the ASO were building the start and finish areas, transforming the regular streets into a race track, and adding all the temporary trucks and infrastructures that are needed to cater for media and spectators.

The Dimension Data team presented from left to right: former World and UK Champion Mark Cavendish, current UK National Champion Steve Cummings, former Norwegian National Champion Edvald Boasson Hagen and Team Principal Doug Ryder.  Cavendish discussed his recent recovery from glandular fever and his modest expectations for this year's race. Cummings looked a little surprised to be described as the team leader but nonetheless spoke of his desire to seek out stage victories. Edvald was spoken of in glowing terms by his teammates and manager as being the ever-dependable helper and talented in his own right, also with ambitions of stage victories. Doug reminded us all about the importance of the Qhubeka charity and the quest to raise funds to buy 5,000 bikes to transform the lives of children all over Africa. 

The ASO press centre is an impressive site when packed with hundreds of journalists, all working hard to send their news stories back to press, radio and television media all over the globe.

Legendary Electropop artists Kraftwerk were celebrated in the city with this famous Tour de France artwork.  A concert was planned for Saturday night after the first stage, but sadly there was no chance of attending - this really was the hottest ticket in town!

Düsseldorf appears to have very close ties to France, making it the perfect city to host the start of the Tour de France.  All over the Altstadt there were symbols of this friendship.

Back in the city and time to visit more team hotels.  Here BORA - hansgrohe mechanics were working on preparing the special time trial bikes ready for the start of the race the next day.

Just as I arrived the mechanics were working on the bike of current Wolrd Champion Peter Sagan, who has his name, the country flag of Slovakia, and the colours of the Wolrd Champion placed on the top tube of his Specialized race bikes.

There was also time to check out the activities of the UAE Fly Emirates team.  The soigneurs had clearly been busy, with two washing machines working overtime already before the race had even begun.

The hotel was a hive of activity with team cars and race officials from ASO coming and going all day long.

After a long day running around between all these locations it was finally time to sit and recover a little with a local brew of Alt bier at a nice outdoor location next to the Rhine.  The weather was surprisingly sunny and dry.  Would be ideal if these conditions remain for the start of the race in the morning...

All these images were captured using the Huawei P10 Dual Lens. If you want to see more images taken using this great phone camera you can search using the hashtags #huaweiP10 and #ShowWhatYouLove and #huaweilovestravel

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