1954 UCI Track World Championships

Only one plaque reminds of the standing races in the Wuppertal Zoo stadium today, including two world championships that were held here.

The 44th UCI Track World Championships took place from August 27th to 29th, 1954 on the cycling track in the Müngersdorfer Stadium in Cologne ( sprint and single pursuit ) and in Wuppertal - Elberfeld in the stadium at the Zoo ( standing race ). 25 nations were at the start, for the first time a team from the USSR . At the same time, the UCI road world championships were held on the Solingen Klingenring as well as the world championship in cycling and the European championship in artificial cycling .

Like the award of the World Track Championships by the Union Cycliste Internationale to Cologne for 1927 after the First World War , the award for 1954 was a political signal for the resumption of the Federation of German Cyclists in the World Cycling Association after the Second World War . As early as April 1953, officials of the World Cycling Association Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) had visited the competition venues in Cologne, Solingen and Wuppertal-Elberfeld , which the Federation of German Cyclists (BDR) had proposed when it applied for the 1954 World Cup. The cycling wrote: “In any case, the BDR and with it the whole of German cycling will do everything possible to show that they are up to the high task with their great obligations, in order to be able to say in the end that the shadows of the world championships are in the light of the German cycling Make organization so small that the world championship days in Germany were sunny days for international cycling. ” The BDR announced its program for 1954 as early as the 1953 World Cup. Such long-term and professional preparation for a World Cup was a novelty.

In the professional sprint , in which there were only 20 starters, two multiple world champions met, Reginald Harris and Arie van Vliet, with Harris holding the upper hand. In the pursuit race, the Swiss favorite Hugo Koblet, who had won the Tour de France in 1951 , surprisingly had to bow to the Italian Guido Messina .

The sprint amateurs went to bronze medalist of the 1952 Olympic Games , Cyril Peacock. The pursuit race was won by the Italian Leandro Faggin, who two years later won gold medals in the 1000 m time trial and in the four -four at the 1956 Olympic Games .

The Belgian defending champion Adolph Verschueren, who started from position 9, was able to prevail in the standers. What was remarkable about this race was that all nine who placed finished on the same lap.

Results of the professionals

discipline	space	country	athlete
sprint	1	United Kingdom	Reg Harris
	2	Netherlands	Arie van Vliet
	3	Italy	Enzo Sacchi
Standing race (100 km)	1	Belgium	Adolph Verschueren (behind Maurice Ville )
	2	Netherlands	Jan Pronk (behind Frits Wiersma )
	3	United Kingdom	Joe Bunker (behind Léon Vanderstuyft )
Single pursuit (5000 m)	1	Italy	Guido Messina
	2	Switzerland	Hugo Koblet
	3	Luxembourg	Lucien Gillen

Results of the amateurs

discipline	space	country	athlete
sprint	1	United Kingdom	Cyril Peacock
	2	Australia	John Tresidder
	3	France	Roger Gaignard
Single pursuit (4000 m)	1	Italy	Leandro Faggin
	2	United Kingdom	Peter Brotherton
	3	United Kingdom	Norman Sheil

Individual evidence

1. ^ Cycling , September 1, 1953
2. ^ Cycling , April 14, 1953

literature

• Werner Ruttkus / Wolfgang Schoppe / Hans-Alfred Roth : In the shine and shadow of the rainbow. A look back at the cycling world championships in racing, which have been held throughout Germany since 1895 , Berlin 1999

See also

• 1954 UCI Road World Championships