Klaus Kellermann

Klaus Kellermann (born August 5, 1939 in Chemnitz ) is a former German cyclist who was an amateur in the GDR in the 1960s, briefly successful in stage and one-day races, as well as in time trials.

Athletic career

After Klaus Kellermann started cycling in 1955 at the age of fifteen and switched to the men's class in 1957, he was able to place in the top ranks for the first time in 1958, finishing third at Pirna-Altenburg. He made his breakthrough to the top in 1959, when he won circuit races in Radebeul and Dippoldiswalde, was able to finish 2nd in Meißen and 3rd in Leipzig. After his first start in the GDR tour (33rd overall) in the team of SG Medicine Dresden, he won a respectable 2nd place in the classic Rund um Berlin (even before the future professional world champion Jan Janssen). That is why he was delegated to Leipzig in 1960, where he had better training conditions at the forward army sports club and was thus able to celebrate notable sporting successes. So he won in Stuttgart in Rund um Württemberg, was 4th in Rund um Berlin and finally for the first time in the GDR national team, where he was 9th in the final result of the Bulgaria Tour.

In 1961 he started the tours in Egypt (3rd place) and Romania (16th), won the Harz tour and in Rund um Leipzig (in the sprint ahead of Weißleder) and was once again in the lead in Stuttgart when he was Rund um Solitude finished fifth. In the following year Kellermann was part of the GDR squad for the stage race International Peace Trip Berlin – Prague – Warsaw . Of the five placed GDR drivers, he was in 38th place with a gap of almost an hour to the overall winner, but his best stage placement was an 8th place in Leipzig. A second place in a race in Bitterfeld in 1962 was the only ray of hope after it did not get beyond a mediocre 32nd place in the overall standings in the GDR tour.

He proved that Kellermann could also be successful in track cycling at the GDR track cycling championships in 1963. With his partner Sander, he won the bronze medal in a two-man team . As a strong individual time trial, he appeared in the same year with a 5th place in the 57 km individual time trial of the GDR tour, which he completed as tenth best. In the Tour of Hungary, again in the jersey of the GDR national team, he won two stages, finished seventh overall and again crossed the finish line in fourth place in Rund um Berlin . Kellermann had to give himself up to the later Swedish team world champion Gösta Pettersson in the Grand Sportecho Prize , while he won the Grand Prix of the Eastern Ore Mountains .

From 1963 he was a member of the first four-team of the Leipzig Army Sports Club Vorwärts , which won 6th place in the GDR championships in the 100 km team time trial in 1963, 2nd in 1964 and 1966, and 1st place and the championship title in 1965. In 1964 Kellermann was able to achieve one last major victory in road races when he won the criterion Rund um die Hainleite - in stage races, however, he only appeared twice in the overall classification of the GDR tours in 1965 (20th) and 1966 (33rd). In 1964 he and his team scored a stage win on the 2nd stage of the Tour of Tunisia , which he finished 41st in the overall ranking. Although he was still tenth in the GDR road championship in 1966, he ended his sporting career at the age of only 27 and remained in the ranks of the National People's Army.

Web links

• GDR championships at sport-komplett.de
• Hainleite race at radsport-seite.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jacobs et al. a. (Ed.): VELO . 10th year. Brussels 1965, p. 245 .