Host City
The Town
Basel is very bicycle-friendly. There are no steep hills and you can reach every corner of the city as well as the French and German border in about 15 minutes. The trinational region surrounding the City of Basel has approximately 590’000 inhabitans, while the City’s Population itself adds up to about 190'000 people. Basel has two bicycle messenger companies with about 115 active messengers. The well established Bicycle Messenger Community in Basel meets regularly for Alley-Cats, Bike-Polo and other occasions. MEO (Messenger Event Organization) as the joined force of active and former bicycle messengers exists since 1999 and has organised many events and Championships in the last 10 years.
Places to hang out in Basel
Basel is a small city! This makes it easy for you to check out the city after and before the competitions. For all of you who want to cool off after an exhausting competition or who just want to get rid of the dust of last night partying the one and only place to go for a nice swim is the Rhine (Rhein). Except for the port you can jump in basically everywhere. A good place lies in the middle of the city between the „Mittlere Brücke“ and the „Johanniter Brücke“ in the so called „Kleinbasel“ (North of the Rhine, e.g. Messeplatz). At the other side of the Rhine in the „Grossbasel“ try the „Birsköpfli“. You can chill there on the grass, annoy bees or even practice your grass-bike-polo-skills. Anyway...the place lies right next to the Schwarzwaldbrücke. Just ask someone and you can’t miss it! The city itself has a lot of nice places to go. Stroll around in the narrow alleys of the old village in the heart of the city or mount up to the „Pfalz“ in front of the big church called „Münster“ and enjoy the view.
For even more sophisticated messengers who need some intellectual input: Basel has a multitude of esteemed museums (Kunstmuseum, Beyeler Museum, Tinguely Museum, etc.)...
Food & Drinks
You don’t need to buy water. Tap water and the water that comes out of fountains are potable (except where specially noted). During the competitions there will also be available 600 liters of water supplied by the Basel City Industrial Works. If you want to shop at really favourable prices, go to France or Germany. It only takes a maximum of 15 minutes to cycle over the border. The shops in Switzerland close at 6.30 to 7 p.m. on week days, and at 5 to 6 p.m. on Saturday. They are closed on Sundays. At the train station (Bahnhof SBB and Badischer Bahnhof) there are shops that are open daily until 10 p.m. (also on Sundays). You will find many small shops and Döner places in the City. Most are open until 10 p.m, some of the Döner places are even open all night.
