GDR road cycling championships 1961
The GDR road cycling championships in 1961 were used to determine the GDR champions in the individual road race for men and women and in the 100 km team time trial. Gustav-Adolf Schur won his sixth title in the men's singles , Elisabeth Kleinhans was GDR champion for the first time and SC Dynamo Berlin won the team time trial for the first time .
Single race
route
For the individual competitions, an 11.3 kilometer long circuit with start and finish in the Upper Lusatian town of Gersdorf was marked out. An eight percent and 800 meter long incline in the Obersteina district was difficult to master for the active . While the men had to drive through the route 16 times and thus had to cover 180.8 kilometers, the women drove the circuit six times and thus came to 67.8 kilometers.
Men
On Sunday, July 23, 1961, over 100 drivers started in Gersdorf in cool and rainy weather. There was initially little activity on the route, which was lined with 20,000 spectators, only a mass fall on the second lap on the driveway to Obersteina caused excitement. However, only Siegfried Kettmann from Leipzig was injured and had to give up the race. The three-time double winners from previous years, Schur and Bernhard Eckstein , who stayed in the field for a long time , were closely guarded . Only in the tenth lap did they both take the lead after their team-mate Klaus Ampler had already caused unrest in the field with advances. However, other drivers tried to break away, such as Dieter Ruthenberg from Berlin or Erich Hagen from DHfK, but they were always caught up again. After 15 laps the field had decimated to 33 drivers and a mass finish was already expected. The decision was made seven kilometers from the finish. Schur and Eckstein used the last climb in Obersteina to break away from the field and together, with a lead of 200 meters, headed towards the goal in Gersdorf. Once again Schur had the better sprint, so that it was the fourth time in a row that Schur entered before Eckstein. 15 seconds later, Hans Seidel from Karl-Marx-Stadt led the field across the finish line.
| driver | team | Time (h) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Gustav-Adolf Schur | SC DHfK Leipzig | 4:49:17 |
| 2. | Bernhard Eckstein | SC DHfK Leipzig | same time |
| 3. | Hans Seidel | SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt | 4:49:32 |
| 4th | Kurt Mueller | SC Dynamo Berlin | all the same time |
| 5. | Egon Adler | ASK forward Leipzig | |
| 6th | Erich Hagen | SC DHfK Leipzig | |
| 7th | Günter Loerke | SC DHfK Leipzig | |
| 8th. | Klaus Ampler | SC DHfK Leipzig | |
| 9. | Horst Kappel | SC unit Berlin | |
| another 24 drivers | |||
Women
Among the women who started before the men in Gersdorf, the two-time champion from 1959 and 1960, Karin Hansel , was dethroned. In a sprint from a group of three, the third of the cycling world championship of 1960, Elisabeth Kleinhans , secured the championship ahead of the defending champion. The women's championship turned out to be a total triumph for SC DHfK Leipzig , whose female riders took places one to five.
| driver | team | Time (h) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Elisabeth Kleinhans | SC DHfK Leipzig | 2:07:02 |
| 2. | Karin Hansel | SC DHfK Leipzig | all the same time |
| 3. | Renate Kramer | SC DHfK Leipzig | |
| 4th | Ingrid Kutter | SC DHfK Leipzig | 2:07:30 |
| 5. | Kiesewetter | SC DHfK Leipzig | 2:15:06 |
| 6th | Oettel | SG Dynamo Dresden North | same time |
| ... | |||
100 km team time trial
The title fight in the team time trial on Sunday, July 30, 1961, took place on the Lübben - Herzberg and back route, as in previous years . The four-man from SC Dynamo Berlin won surprisingly clearly ahead of the defending champion SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt . The Berliners with Lothar Appler , Hans Scheibner , Kurt Müller and Manfred Brüning had a lead of more than five minutes after the 100 kilometers. As in the previous year, the favored team of the SC DHfK Leipzig disappointed, which only came in ninth after a weakness from Erich Hagen . The Leipziger had additional bad luck due to a handlebar break at Günter Lörke .
| team | time | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | SC Dynamo Berlin I | 2: 17: 18.4 h |
| 2. | SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt I | + 5: 13.8 min |
| 3. | ASK forward Leipzig | + 5: 56.4 min |
| 4th | SG Dynamo Dresden North | + 5: 49.9 min |
| 5. | SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt II | + 5: 56.4 min |
| 6th | SC unit Berlin | + 5: 59.1 min |
| 7th | SC Dynamo Berlin II | + 6: 19.9 min |
| 8th. | SG Dynamo Potsdam | + 6: 25.5 min |
| 9. | SC DHfK Leipzig I | + 8: 00.2 min |
| 10. | SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt III | + 8: 40.5 min |
| ... | ||
literature
- Deutsches Sportecho , issue of July 24, 1961
- Berliner Zeitung , edition of July 31, 1961