China Daily March 31 2009.
"Kunming has been awarded the honour of hosting the prologue for the Tour de France 2010 in a close contest with Barcelona in Spain and Berlin. Mayor of Kunming Yang Rui was extremely happy yesterday when the announcement was made. "We have been fighting hard to get Tour de France to Kunming for some time now and with the financial backing of the HongHe group we finally achieved our goal. This will help to promote Kunming globally as the financial and logistical hub of Southwestern China".
The prologue which will be held on the 21st of Juli will start in Anning, go along the outskirts of Kunming with a small detour to Dian lake before the teams will turn on to Ren Min Lu and finish in Kundu Nightmarket outside of Sohu.
Due to his long commitment to cycling Friedhelm Goering of The Hump bar was in the organizing commitee of the Kunming Tour de France 2010 group. "I am over ze moon today" the jolly German said in a comment to our reporter. "Now we will do our best to organize a team that can take part in ze 2010 race. Arun and I have already started preparations and we intend to recruit at least 7 more riders amongst our regulars and business associates."