Eschborn–Frankfurt, previously Rund um den Henninger Turm Frankfurt, is an annual semi classic cycling race in Germany, starting in

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

and finishing in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. The event, sometimes referred to as the Frankfurt Grand Prix, is held annually on 1 May, national

Labour Day Labour Day is an annual day of celebration of the labour movement and its labor rights, achievements. It has its origins in the trade union, labour union movement, specifically the Eight-hour day movement, eight-hour day movement, which advoca ...

in Germany. As from 2017, Eschborn–Frankfurt is part of the

UCI World Tour The UCI WorldTour is the premier men's elite road cycling tour, sitting above the UCI ProSeries and various regional UCI Continental Circuits. It refers to both the tour of 38 events and, until 2019, an annual ranking system based upon perfor ...

, the highest-rated professional men's road races, making it the second German World Tour event, together with the

Hamburg Cyclassics The Hamburg Cyclassics (currently known as the Bemer Cyclassics for sponsorship purposes) is an annual one-day professional and amateur cycling race in and around Hamburg, Germany. Although the route varies, its distance is always around 250 ...

in August. The event is organised by ASO.

History

The event was first held on 1 May 1962, as ''Rund um den Henninger Turm Frankfurt'', starting and finishing in Frankfurt's city centre. Brothers Hermann and Erwin Moos sought to promote the Henninger Tower, a grain silo belonging to the

Henninger Brewery Henninger Brewery was a notable brewery in Frankfurt, Germany. The Henninger brewery in Frankfurt traces its roots to 1655 in Eberhard Stein's brew house. In 1873 Heinrich Christian Henninger, who came from Erlangen/Bavaria, entered the brewery. ...

, which opened in 1961. Henninger served as main sponsor of the cycling event from the inaugural race until 2008. Rund um den Henninger Turm received a status upgrade in 1967 when

Paris–Brussels The Brussels Cycling Classic (known until June 2013 as Paris–Brussels) is a semi classic European bicycle race, one of the oldest races on the international calendar. History Paris–Brussels was first run on 12 August 1893 as an amateur eve ...

, organised in late April, was removed from the calendar due to traffic problems and the event became the pre-eminent one-day cycling race in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. The race's first winner was Belgian

Armand Desmet Armand Desmet (23 January 1931 – 17 November 2012) nieuwsblad.be
Details of death ...

in 1962.

Barry Hoban Barry Hoban (5 February 1940 – 19 April 2025) was an English professional cyclist who rode during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He formerly held the record for the most stage wins in the Tour de France by a British rider, winning eight betw ...

became the first British winner in 1966 after a 50 km solo ride to the finish, holding the chasing pack at one minute. Legendary cyclist

Eddy Merckx Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (born 17 June 1945), known as Eddy Merckx (, ), is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist racer who is the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an ...

won the race solo in 1971. Sprinter

Erik Zabel Erik Zabel (; born 7 July 1970) is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced for most of his career with Team Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest Germ ...

held the record for most victories in the race with three (1999, 2002 and 2005) until

Alexander Kristoff Alexander Kristoff (born 5 July 1987) is a Norwegian professional road bicycle racer, who rides for UCI ProSeries, UCI ProTeam . A sprinter and classics rider, Kristoff is the most successful Norwegian cyclist by number of wins, having taken alm ...

in 2018 added a fourth victory to his 2014, 2016 and 2017 wins, and therefore becoming sole record-holder. Seven further riders have won twice. In 1995, ''Rund um den Henninger Turm'' was part of the

UCI Road World Cup The UCI Road World Cup was a season-long Road bicycle racing, road cycling competition held from 1989 until 2004 and comprising ten one-day events. The World Cup was made up of around ten Road bicycle racing, one-day races chosen from the prest ...

, cycling's season-long competition of the most important one-day races in the 1990s. The fixed date of the event however, every 1 May, was considered unfavourable as it was often midweek, and it was replaced with the newly created

HEW Cyclassics The Hamburg Cyclassics (currently known as the Bemer Cyclassics for sponsorship purposes) is an annual one-day professional and amateur road bicycle race, cycling race in and around Hamburg, Germany. Although the route varies, its distance is alw ...

in Hamburg as the German leg of the series. Rennen Henninger Turm

In 2008, organiser Bernd Moos stated Henninger would withdraw its sponsorship of the race. Henninger discontinued its funding after 46 years because of economic conditions.Official website.
Announces withdrawal of Henninger Bräu AG as main sponsors. The event continued in 2009 as the ''Eschborn–Frankfurt City Loop'', named after its city sponsors, Frankfurt and the neighboring town of

, which also became the start location of the race.(New) official website.
Announces new name and main sponsors. (in German) The iconic Henninger Tower was demolished in 2013. Henninger Turm-2005-05-01

The 2015 event was cancelled on the eve of the race due to a suspected terrorist plot; the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2017, Eschborn–Frankfurt was included in the

, cycling's highest rated professional events, and organisation was taken on by ASO, which also organises cycling's flagships, the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

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 'Cycling monument, Monuments' ...

Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn Frankfurt- 2011

Route

The race passes through the Taunus Hills west of Frankfurt, along a winding and hilly course with around 1500m (5,000 feet) of climbing. The climbs of the Feldberg, Ruppershain and Mammolshain are some of the regular features. The Mammolshain has a maximal

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The g ...

of 26% and is climbed twice in the race. The race ends with three laps of 4,5 km in the centre of Frankfurt, covering a total distance of around over . Until 2008 the start and finish of the race was on Hainer Weg and later Darmstädter Landstraße, in front of the Henninger Tower. Since the event's restyling in 2009, the race starts in

, west of

– the finish was at the housing development Riedberg. Since 2010, the finish is in front of the

Alte Oper Alte Oper (Old Opera) is a concert hall in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It is located in the inner city, Innenstadt, within the banking district Bankenviertel. Today's Alte Oper was built in 1880 as the city's opera house, which was destr ...

''(Old Opera)'', Frankfurt's concert hall and former opera house in the city centre.

Race winners

, - , colspan=4 align=center, ↓ "Rund um den Henninger-Turm" ↓ , - , colspan=4 align=center, ↓ "Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop" ↓ , - , colspan=4 align=center, ↓ "Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt" ↓ , - , colspan=4 align=center, ↓ "Eschborn-Frankfurt" ↓

Multiple-time winners

Wins per country

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eschborn-Frankfurt - Rund um den Finanzplatz UCI World Tour races Cycle races in Germany

Rund um den Henninger-Turm Rund is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Cathleen Rund (born 1977), German swimmer * Hanno Rund (1925–1993), German mathematician * Thorsten Rund (born 1976), German road and track cyclist See also * Rand (surname) * R ...

Sports competitions in Frankfurt Recurring sporting events established in 1962 1962 establishments in West Germany UCI Europe Tour races UCI Road World Cup races Taunus Super Prestige Pernod races Inline speed skating competitions