Heinz Vopel

Heinz Vopel (born April 5, 1908 in Dortmund ; † June 22, 1959 there ) was a German racing cyclist .

Athletic career

Heinz Vopel was a professional cyclist from 1931 to 1953. He was best known as a congenial partner of Gustav Kilian in six-day races. Vopel drove a total of 74 six-day races and won 32 of them, 29 together with Kilian, in whose shadow he was, however, all his life. Of his 32 victories in six-day races, Vopel only won three not with Kilian; he won these three races with Cecil Yates , Jules Audy and Reginald Fielding / Piet van Kempen . The duo achieved most victories between 1933 and 1941 in the USA and Canada, since there have been no six-day races in Germany since 1934. On March 16, 1951, Kilian / Vopel won the Berlin six-day race at the age of 43 and 42, respectively, making them the oldest team that ever finished a six-day race victoriously.

Vopel's birthplace in Dortmund was only a few hundred meters away from the place where the first Westfalenhalle was built in 1924 . As a boy he went to cycling races in his hometown as often as possible . At the age of 14 he had built his first bike. A year later, in 1923, he joined the RV Vehmlinde Dortmund association . A serious childhood illness had a long lasting effect, so that he initially had no major success. Long and hard training led to the first victory in the 1926 club championship on the road. Soon after, he consistently turned to track cycling .

In 1931 Heinz Vopel became a professional driver. The then 23-year-old was predicted a great future in international cycling in 1931 by the then organizer and director of the Dortmund Westfalenhalle, Paul Schwarz (who was considered the discoverer of the Gustav Kilian / Heinz Vopel team). Vopel began his special discipline, two-man team driving, initially with Cielinski, Willy Korsmeyer, Hans Pützfeld and occasionally with Gustav Kilian as a partner. At the beginning of 1934 it was Kilian's father who urged Schwarz (who initially blocked himself) to keep Vopel permanently together with Kilian. After finishing second in the six-day race in Munich in 1933 and showing a convincing performance, her career in Germany was abruptly interrupted. There were no more six-day races held almost overnight, which meant that the young professional drivers lost their most important source of income. After they unsuccessfully turned to the former racing driver Oskar Egg (who worked as an agent for the American organizers in Europe), Piet van Kempen and the American promoter Willy Spencer arranged a start for them in the six-day race in London in 1934 . Spencer was so impressed by their driving style that he spontaneously offered them a contract for eight six-day races in the USA and Canada .

This began her incomparable winning streak in six-day races. Kilian / Vopel were so successful that the American organizers Spencer and Chapman looked for ways to add new moments of tension to the six-day races in North America. At the end of 1938, both otherwise fierce competitors wanted to separate the Kilian / Vopel team by concluding individual contracts with both drivers instead of with the team in order to allow them to start with other racing drivers. Vopel and Kilian consistently refused, so that the next races took place without the Germans. Since the audience wanted to see both of them at the start, the organizers launched reports that Kilian / Vopel had left for Germany. Thereupon Gustav Kilian and Heinz Vopel went as visitors to the six-day race in New York in late autumn 1939, were of course recognized and celebrated. The organizers gave in and both started again as a team in the next races.

After the end of the season's races, both regularly drove back to Germany to relax. As the global political situation worsened, Kilian and Vopel sometimes had to take adventurous journeys through the Soviet Union , China , Japan and Hawaii to get to the races in the USA and back to Germany. Their popularity in North America was huge, despite the tense political situation, they were loved and nicknamed by the audience. Heinz Vopel was called "Heinz 57" based on a well-known American brand, Kilian was the "Crazy Gus". According to contemporary information, they did not start in jerseys with the swastika , but rode in jerseys from their Dürkopp racing team. The association organ Der Deutsche Radfahrer emphasized, however, that the riders “refused to tackle the race in New York because they had attached black, white and red flags to their box as a national flag”. Because Kilian-Vopel had campaigned for “the reputation of German sport and Germanness”, the two drivers were given 5000 Reichsmarks from the “ Wilhelm-Gustloff ” in May 1938 by the Commander-in-Chief of the German Air Force , Hermann Göring , in the Führer’s office. Foundation “rewarded. In November 1940, the two drivers were booed by the spectators at the six-day race in Chicago because they had slipped armbands with a swastika on after their victory.

While Gustav Kilian was celebrated by the American and Canadian public for his temperament and toughness, Heinz Vopel was considered the team's cool strategist in North America.

When Vopel's official farewell to active cycling with a lap of honor in the Westfalenhalle in 1955 (he had contested his last race in autumn 1954), many former comrades-in-arms such as Piet van Kempen or Willy Falck-Hansen were there, only his long-term partner and friend Gustav Kilian was missing . Both had previously fallen out after their last victory together in Berlin. Vopel died in 1959 after a heart attack in his hometown.

Professional

After retiring from active sport, Vopel was elected as a railway specialist in the Association of German Cyclists (BDR).

Private

Vopel's son Heinz Vopel jr. also became a cyclist and professional cyclist.

literature

• Gerd Rensmann: 6-day race. Westarp Verlag, 1984.

Web links

• Heinz Vopel in the Radsportseiten.net database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Association of German Cyclists (ed.): Cycling . No. 26/1959 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1959, p. 2 .
2. ↑ Roger De Maertelaere: Six Day Race . Uitgeverij Worldstrips, Gent 1991, p. 137 (Flemish / French / German).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Erwin Riep: 12 million people cheered Heinz Vopel and Gustav Kilian . Cycling. Ed .: Association of German Cyclists. German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1955 (series of articles).
4. ↑ Gerd Rensmann: Alone you are nothing - as a team everything . Verlag Sportwerbung Steinbrecher, Bork 1977, p. 90-101 .
5. ↑ Ka-ke-ko-ku-Kilian. Der Spiegel, March 23, 1950, accessed on April 29, 2019 . 
6. ^ Werner Ruttkus , Wolfgang Schoppe: Round gyro & Berlin air . Self-published by Werner Ruttkus, Zossen 2011, p. 144 .
7. ^ The German cyclist , December 14, 1937.
8. ^ The German cyclist , May 24, 1938.
9. ^ Peter Joffre Nye: The Six-Day Bicycle Races. America's Jazz-Age Sport. Van der Plas Publishing, San Francisco CA 2006, ISBN 1-892495-49-X . P. 178.
10. ^ Peter Joffre Nye: The Six-Days Bicycle Races . Van der Plas Publications / Cycle Publishing, San Francisco 2006, ISBN 1-892495-49-X , p. 178 (English).
11. ↑ Heinz Vopel Jr. in the database of the Radsportseiten.net. Retrieved April 29, 2019 .