There are easier ways to spend Wednesday morning with your kids. You could go to the playground, get some ice cream, or head to the local pool. Or you could take a one-hour train ride from Frankfurt, ride another eight kilometers, unexpectedly end up cycling two kilometers on a busy main road, and then watch your son ride the same course that an elite peloton of professional cyclists, including Tour de France stars Isaac del Toro, Giulio Ciccone, Marc Hirschi, John Degenkolb and others, will tackle a few hours later.
Withouth hesitation, we went with option two.
On August 19, the 2026 Deutschland Tour kicked off with its prologue in Bad Orb, around 60 kilometers east of Frankfurt. Before the professionals got down to business, however, it was the kids’ turn.
My son had signed up for the Kinder Joy of Moving Mini Tour bike parade, an event for children aged 6 to 12 that accompanies the Deutschland Tour on every of the six stages. Despite a rather questionable journey to the start, this is one kids’ cycling event I’d happily sign him up for again.
Getting to the Deutschland Tour by train and bike
Our plan seemed almost suspiciously sensible: take the train from Frankfurt to the small town of Wächtersbach, bikes on board, then ride the remaining eight kilometers or so to Bad Orb. No hunting for parking, no sitting in event traffic, and since we were heading to Germany’s biggest professional cycling stage race, arriving by bike seemed rather appropriate.
Until we found the bike path closed.
On precisely the day thousands of cycling fans were expected in Bad Orb, part of the cycle path into town was being resurfaced. The designated alternative meant riding for roughly two kilometers on the busy Bundesstraße with my son, which also earned us some unsolicited roadside expertise from passing drivers about how irresponsible it was to cycle there with a child.
Thanks for pointing that out. We weren’t particularly keen on being there either.
The slightly absurd part came about six hours later, on our way home. The cycle path was open and perfectly rideable. Only parts of it had actually received fresh asphalt, and, from what I could see, there would have been little preventing bikes from using it earlier in the day.
Closing a major cycling route into a town on the morning it hosts the Deutschland Tour was, to put it mildly, unfortunate timing.
What exactly is the Kinder Joy of Moving Mini Tour?
Fortunately, things improved considerably once we arrived.
The Kinder Joy of Moving Mini Tour is part of the Deutschland Tour program and gives children the opportunity to experience some of the atmosphere surrounding a professional bike race themselves. For kids aged 6 to 12, that means the bike parade.
The word parade is quite deliberate because this isn’t a children’s race. There are no finishing times, no result sheets, and no reason for an eight-year-old to start calculating watts per kilogram over breakfast.
Instead, the children ride together in a close group on part of the professional course. In Bad Orb, that meant two laps and 3.2 kilometers in total, short enough to make the event accessible to a wide range of kids rather than turning it into an endurance test.
Jens Voigt: the human safety car
At the front of the group was former professional cyclist and multiple Tour de France participant Jens Voigt, whose role can probably best be described as a human safety car.
He sets the pace, the kids follow, and crucially nobody is allowed to overtake him. Numerous other adults and guides ride throughout the group to keep everything together and make sure the young peloton reaches the finish in one piece.
It’s a clever format because the kids get more than simply the novelty of riding on closed roads. They also experience some of the basics of group riding: watching the riders around them, holding their line, adjusting their speed, and understanding that cycling doesn’t always have to be about reaching the finish first.
Learning all that while following Jens Voigt around part of a Deutschland Tour course isn’t a bad introduction.
Every kind of bike welcome
One of the things I liked most was how mixed the group was. Regular children’s bikes lined up alongside proper little road bikes, while clothing ranged from everyday sportswear to full cycling kit. Nobody looked out of place, and there was certainly no sense that you needed to arrive looking like the new signing for a junior racing team.
The requirements were refreshingly simple. Children needed their own bike, a helmet and enough confidence on two wheels to safely ride in a group. Beyond that, there was plenty of room for everyone to do things their own way.
Signing up was refreshingly straightforward
Registration was equally uncomplicated. We signed up online by providing the usual contact details plus my son’s name and age. Around a week to a week and a half before the event, we received a comprehensive information package with a map of the event area, details on where everything would take place and a summary of the most important information of the day.
As a parent, that worked very well. There was no need to arrive at a large professional sporting event and start wandering around looking for somebody holding a clipboard. We knew where we needed to go and what was expected.
And there was a jersey to collect, too. At registration, each child received a Kinder Joy of Moving cycling jersey made by Bioracer. Wearing the jersey was a requirement for taking part in the bike parade, so the children effectively arrived at the start already dressed as a little Kinder Joy of Moving peloton.
The schedule on the day was similarly sensible. There was a registration window of around 90 minutes and the bike parade started shortly afterwards, with a presentation following soon after the ride.
The whole experience was compact enough that even younger kids weren’t left hanging around for hours before finally getting onto their bikes. Something that anyone who has attended sporting events with children will probably appreciate.
3.2 kilometers? Seriously?
The children completed two laps for a total of 3.2 kilometers, and my son had a great time. His main complaint was simply that it was too short.
Admittedly, his frame of reference is slightly unusual. We regularly ride considerably longer distances together, with some of our rides now reaching around 50 kilometers, so 3.2 kilometers wasn’t exactly going to require a recovery shake afterwards.
For this particular format, however, the short distance makes sense because the same course needs to work for a six-year-old on a regular kids’ bike as well as for a 12-year-old who already spends weekends riding a road bike.
The aim isn’t to test endurance, but to give as many children as possible a positive experience of riding together on a closed professional race course. Judging by the faces around us, that worked rather well.
The medal is nice. The jersey is even better.
After the ride, the children left their bikes at a secure bike parking area and were guided to the presentation where everyone received a medal and another big round of applause, just a short distance from where the professionals would later start the race.
The real souvenir, though, was the Kinder Joy of Moving cycling jersey every participant had received at registration. It came with a full-length zipper and the classic three rear pockets. In other words, a proper cycling jersey rather than a promotional T-shirt destined for the bottom of a drawer.
Of course, there is a marketing equation behind this. The children were expected to wear the jersey during the bike parade, which conveniently creates a perfectly branded little peloton for the spectators, cameras and event photos.
With Kinder Joy of Moving ultimately being a Ferrero initiative, nobody needs to pretend that brand visibility isn’t part of the exercise. But as deals between brands and six-year-old cyclists go, this one seems pretty fair. Participation in the event is free and the kids go home with a generally useful, good-quality cycling jersey they can continue wearing afterwards.
More importantly, it extends the experience beyond the event itself. When that jersey comes out again for the next family ride, there’s a decent chance some of the excitement of riding the Deutschland Tour course comes with it.
Watching the pros up close
The day didn’t end with the kids’ ride. Participants of the Kinder Joy of Moving Mini Tour and their parents also had access to a designated viewing area just around 100 meters from the finish line. So we stayed on and watched the professionals tackle the prologue’s individual time trial from close range.
My son took his role as chief spectator very seriously and cheered on pretty much every rider who came past. Watching the pros fly by just minutes after riding the same course himself was a pretty great way to round off the experience.
So how was it?
For us, the bike parade delivered exactly what I hoped it would: a taste of professional cycling without turning a children’s event into a competition. Closed roads, plenty of applause, experienced guides and the chance to ride on the Deutschland Tour course made it feel special, while the short distance and relaxed approach kept it accessible.
And because no review on The Cycling Dad would be complete without reducing an entire morning of parenting and cycling to a conveniently digestible list, here’s the short version of our day.
The good:
- Free participation
- Straightforward online registration and excellent information beforehand
- Closed course with plenty of guides
- No racing or pressure to perform
- Open to very different bikes and levels of cycling experience
- Medal plus a proper Bioracer jersey to take home
- Compact schedule that works well for younger children
- Generally fun atmosphere alongside a professional bike race
The less good:
- At 3.2 kilometers, keen young cyclists may find it over rather quickly.
- Our bike-friendly journey to a major bike race unexpectedly included two kilometers on a busy main road thanks to a rather badly timed cycle path closure.
Would we do it again?
Absolutely. If the Kinder Joy of Moving Mini Tour returns alongside the Deutschland Tour in 2027, we’ll be keeping an eye on the route and looking for a stage that works for us. My son will probably be checking the length of the course and I’ll be checking the road works.
