Fritz Ryser

Fritz Ryser

Fritz Ryser (born May 26, 1873 in Huttwil ; † February 13, 1916 in Berlin ) was a Swiss cyclist .

Fritz Ryser, who was a trained businessman, did not drive his first race on the road until he was 24, and in the same year he won the Zurich-Baden-Baden long-distance journey. He had only learned to ride a bike a year earlier. In 1899 he was also Swiss road champion. Then he became a professional on the track and drove standing races .

As early as 1901, he took third place at the World Cup for standing. In 1908 he became the first Swiss world champion to stay standing. Eight days after this victory, his pacemaker Josef Schwarzer had a fatal accident in a joint race in Düsseldorf. The following year Ryser was in the racetrack disaster of Berlin on the velodrome involved "Botanical Garden", flew as the motorcycle of his pacemaker Emil Borchardt, who had to avoid a fallen rider in the stands and exploded there. Nine people were killed in this accident.

Ryser was considered a racing driver who was haunted by bad luck. His attempts to become active in other areas, such as as a taxi entrepreneur, ended unsuccessfully, so that he kept returning to cycling. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I , he was imprisoned for some time on the occasion of a race in Lodz, Poland, for alleged espionage; his pacemaker was deported to Siberia.

Fritz Ryser was found dead in his Berlin apartment on February 16, 1916 after a stroke.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Peter Schnyder (Ed.): Oerlikon race track . AS Verlag, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-909111-95-4 , p. 74-75 .
2. ↑ Velo Gotha , Brussels 1984, p. 461
3. ^ Sepp Renggli : Swiss cycling. Yesterday, today, tomorrow , Zurich 1998, p. 110. ISBN 3-908487-36-6

literature

• Rad-Welt's sport album , 4th year, 1905; 15 year, 1917

Web links

• Fritz Ryser in the Radsportseiten.net database