Rudi Wedge

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Rudi Keil on the Andreasried Velodrome
Rudi Keil after the sprint win in the points race

Rudi Keil (born January 24, 1928 in Friedrichsdorf near Erfurt ; † June 24, 2018 in Erfurt) was a German cyclist .

Athletic career

Keil came from a family of cyclists. His father was active at RC Diana 07 Erfurt in the 1920s and promoted the cycling inclinations of his sons Rudi and Heinz as much as possible.

In 1942 he began cycling with the “First Step”, initially on a touring bike. Just one year later, he won the youth race around the Hainleite . Shortly afterwards, he received his first real racing machine. In 1944 there were already 28 wins for him in 42 starts, he was even allowed to take part in an amateur race for men with a special permit. In 1946 he contracted pleurisy, which for a long time did not allow any sport. In 1947, against the advice of his doctor, he obtained a license as a professional driver , and in 1948 the first attempts were made as a stalker , while still on a flying machine. In 1949, old Erfurt cycling friends collected standing material for him so that he could now start well equipped behind the role. This year, the Erfurt race management set up a standing school, and Keil was immediately involved. On April 24th he won the final race of the standing school behind pacemaker Karl Saldow and just four months later on August 20 the east zone championship over 100 kilometers behind pacemaker Hans Käb.

After the Second World War, Rudi Keil was the local hero on the Erfurt Radrennbahn in his typical black jersey with green stripes. His domain was the standing races , in which he won the East Zone championship in 1949 and the GDR championship for professional drivers in 1951 . In 1953 he was again third in the championship. He achieved his greatest successes behind the pacemakers Hans Käb, Fritz Erdenberger and Walter Heßlich. In 1950 he was also the GDR master of professional drivers over 5000 meters in the single pursuit .

Keil started again and again in the western zones and the Federal Republic . There he was able to take third place behind Walter Lohmann and Jean Schorn Jr. at the all-German standing championships in 1951 as the only starter from East Germany . win. He had thus achieved the qualification for participation in the UCI World Championships , but received no starting permit from the GDR Association. The most important and traditional race on the Erfurt Radrennbahn (Andreasried) - the "Goldene Rad von Erfurt" (held since 1910 with the first winner Hermann Przyrembel) - he won in 1951 and 1952. In the latter race, the former world champion Erich Metze had an accident on September 9th fatal in a fall. Keil drove directly behind Metze and barely escaped the fall.

On February 15, 1955, the GDR cycling federation published a decision of its executive committee, according to which all still active professional drivers and pacemakers were asked to immediately become “members of the democratic sports movement” and to join a company sports community (BSG). All athletes who would take advantage of this opportunity would be exempt from the usual two-year waiting period and would immediately be eligible to start with the amateurs. The decision was of an ultimate nature and ended with a deadline of February 28, 1955. After it was reamateurised in March 1955, it started again in 1956 at a GDR championship of the stayers and came third behind the winner Erich Stammer . As a reamateurised driver, he started together with the reamateurised Bruno Zieger from Erfurt for the BSG Post Berlin . Here he also competed in road races again and was able to occupy top places several times. After the end of his career, he moved back to his hometown Erfurt.

Familiar

With his brother Heinz Keil (GDR champion in team pursuit with BSG KWU Erfurt in 1949 ) he also formed a successful pair in competitions in two-man team driving .

Private

Keil, a car mechanic by profession , became a well-known expert in the field of his hobby, chicken breeding, and has received several international awards. In 2018 he celebrated his 70th anniversary . In 1951 he worked on the shooting of the DEFA film " His great victory ", which played in the cycling environment. He doubled the main actor Claus Holm in the scenes on the racing bike .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Commemorative page of Rudi Keil. Retrieved January 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c S&B Satz und Buch GmbH (ed.): Steher, Stars and Sensationen. 123 years of the Andreasried cycling track . Erfurt 2008, p. 57-58 .
  3. ^ Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (Ed.): Cycling Week . No. 7/1955 . Sportverlag, Berlin 1955, p. 8 .
  4. ↑ a b Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (ed.): Cycling Week . No. 12/1955 . Sportverlag, Berlin 1955, p. 11 .
  5. ^ Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (Ed.): Cycling Week . No. 35/1955 . Sportverlag, Berlin 1955, p. 12 .
personal data
SURNAME Wedge, Rudi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Friedrichsdorf (Witterda)
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 2018
Place of death Erfurt