The 2015 Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop (german: Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt 2015) was scheduled to be the 54th edition of the Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop semi-classic cycling race; it would have taken place on 1 May 2015. The race was cancelled the day before it was scheduled to take place because of a suspected terrorist plot similar to the

Boston Marathon bombing The Boston Marathon bombing was a domestic terrorist attack that took place during the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Two terrorists, brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs, w ...

Planned event

The race was to have taken place on 1 May 2015 and was rated as a 1.HC event by the

Union Cycliste Internationale The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland. The UCI issues raci ...

(UCI). The planned route was in length, starting in

Eschborn Eschborn () is a town in the Main-Taunus district, Hesse, Germany. It is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area and has a population of 21,488 (2018). Eschborn is home to numerous corporations due to its proximity to Frankfurt and relatively ...

and ending in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

; the course included several hills. The defending champion was

Alexander Kristoff Alexander Kristoff (born 5 July 1987) is a Norwegian professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He won the Norwegian National Road Race Championships in 2007 and 2011. His biggest victories have been the 2014 Milan ...

(). The favourites for victory included Kristoff and

John Degenkolb John Degenkolb (born 7 January 1989) is a German professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . His biggest wins to date are the 2015 Milan–San Remo and the 2015 Paris–Roubaix, two of cycling's five monuments. He is ...

(), who had between them won Milan–San Remo, the

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders ( nl, Ronde van Vlaanderen), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and orga ...

and

Paris–Roubaix Paris–Roubaix is a one-day professional bicycle road race in northern France, starting north of Paris and finishing in Roubaix, at the border with Belgium. It is one of cycling's oldest races, and is one of the ' Monuments' or classics of th ...

Teams

22 teams were invited to take part in the race. Six of these were

UCI WorldTeam A UCI WorldTeam (2015–present), previously UCI ProTeam (2005–2014), is the term used by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to name a cycling team of the highest category in professional road cycling, the UCI World Tour or UCI ProTour ...

s; seven were

UCI Professional Continental The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to expand cycling around the world. The five circuits (representing the continents of Africa, the ...

teams; eight were German

UCI Continental The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to expand cycling around the world. The five circuits (representing the continents of Africa, th ...

teams; the last was a German national team.

Suspected terrorist plot and cancellation

On 30 April 2015, the day before the race was due to have taken place, local authorities announced that it had been cancelled due to "indications of a possible threat to the population". A couple, one of whom was described as a "suspected Islamic extremist", were arrested the previous day at their home in

Oberursel Oberursel (Taunus) () is a town in Germany and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. It is located to the north west of Frankfurt, in the Hochtaunuskreis county. It is the 13th largest town in Hesse. In 2011, the town hosted the 51st He ...

, which is along the race route. The couple arrested were identified as Halil D., 35, a German citizen of Turkish origin, and Senay D., 34, thought to be a Turkish citizen. Various items were found in their house, including a homemade

pipe bomb A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device which uses a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively huge explos ...

, bomb-making materials, an

automatic rifle An automatic rifle is a type of autoloading rifle that is capable of fully automatic fire. Automatic rifles are generally select-fire weapons capable of firing in semi-automatic and automatic firing modes (some automatic rifles are capable of ...

, bazooka ammunition and a canister full of petrol. One of the couple had apparently bought

hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3%� ...

and alcohol at a hardware shop and had been seen exploring a forest along the race route. He had connections to

Salafists The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generat ...

in Frankfurt, including the group

Dawa FFM Dawa FFM was an Islamist Salafi organisation based in Frankfurt, Germany that was founded in 2008. The most prominent preacher of the group was Abdellatif Rouali, who was under investigation by German authorities for recruitment of jihadists. In ...

. The German newspaper ''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter All ...

'' suggested that he was involved with Al-Qaeda, specifically

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي, Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī), or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims to o ...

(AQIM). According to German police the couple had also travelled to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

to meet with members of Sharia4Spain. It has also been suggested that there may have been connections to Adem Yilmaz, one of those convicted as part of a bomb plot in 2007. Security officials suggested that the couple may have been planning an attack similar to the

in 2013. Halil D. was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in July 2016 for possession of illegal weapons and falsification of documents.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop 2015 in German sport 2015 UCI Europe Tour 2015 Cancelled sports events Failed terrorist attempts in Germany Islamic terrorism in Germany Islamic terrorist incidents in 2015 Politics and sports 2015 crimes in Germany