1955 UCI Road World Championships

Memorial plaque for the Belgian world champion from 1955 Stan Ockers in Antwerp

The 1955 UCI Road World Championships took place on August 27th and 28th in Frascati ( Italy ).

route

The World Cup course led from Frascati, 23 kilometers southeast of Rome , to the Torre di Mezzavia, 16 kilometers from the center of Rome, and from there back to Frascati. The route measured 20.938 kilometers and had both asphalt and stone pavement. Between kilometers three and seven, the drivers reached a speed of up to 70 km / h on steep slopes. Three kilometers before the finish line, there was an uphill difference in altitude of 180 meters.

Racing action

The 293-kilometer race of the professional drivers turned into a heat battle at 35 degrees in the shade, which of the 65 drivers who started only 21 participants were able to cope. A leading group of defending champion Louison Bobet formed early on , but three Belgians also rode in it. When the 35-year-old Belgian Stan Ockers broke away from the top group in the 13th and penultimate lap , his two compatriots took over the role of the brakes, so that Ockers was able to gain a one-minute lead and crossed the finish line unhindered. Over the entire distance, he had achieved an average speed of 33.6 km / h. His teammates Germain Derijcke and Marcel Janssens crossed the finish line with the six-man chasing group in 3rd and 5th place, the sprint of the chasers was won by the Luxemburgish Jean-Pierre Schmitz , who achieved second place. The Italian local heroes disappointed and only achieved 4th place with Gastone Nencini as the best placement. With 14th place, Ferdy Kübler was the only Swiss who reached the goal. Germany had sent eight drivers into the race, six of whom made it to the finish. The best German driver was Franz Reitz , who ended up in 15th place, almost 19 minutes behind the winner.

The day before, the amateurs had to cover 188 kilometers. It was a total Italian triumph, with three Italians on the podium. The amateur world champion was 21-year-old Sante Ranucci in the sprint ahead of his compatriot Lino Grassi . The third Italian, Dino Bruni , came third, 1:42 minutes behind . In tropical heat of 45 degrees, more than half of the 110 drivers who had started dropped out, including all six GDR active drivers ( Günter Grünwald , Wolfgang Grupe , Emil Reinecke , Gustav-Adolf Schur , Horst Tüller and Detlef Zabel ), those already after the sixth Lap off the bike. At times it seemed as if the Dane Hans Edmund Andresen could have stood up to the Italian phalanx. On the seventh lap he had driven away from the field with the Italian Lino Grassi, and both of them had a three-minute lead. Two laps later, however, Ranucci and Bruni caught up and the Italian trio managed to outpace the Danes. He finally crossed the finish line in the main field in twelfth place. As the best German, Lothar Friedrich from Saarland reached 8th place. Karl-Heinz Meyer finished 19th and Karl Loy 31st from the Association of German Cyclists .

Results

Professionals - 293 km space athlete country time 1 Stan Ockers  BEL 8:43:29 h 2 Jean-Pierre Schmitz  LUX + 1:03 min 3 Germain Derycke  BEL + 1:15 min 4th Gastone Nencini  ITA + 1:15 min 5 Marcel Janssens  BEL + 1:40 min 6th Jacques Anquetil  FRA + 1:40 min 7th Pasquale Fornara  ITA + 1:50 min 8th Raphaël Géminiani  FRA + 2:45 min 9 Antonin Rolland  FRA + 7:35 min 10 Bruno Monti  ITA + 12:52 min 11 Pierre Molineris  FRA + 13:39 min 12 Agostino Coletto  ITA + 16:32 min 13 Nino Defilippis  ITA + 17:52 min 14th Ferdy Kübler  SUI + 18:58 min 15th Franz Reitz  GER + 18:58 min 16 Hennes Junkermann  GER + 19:08 min 17th Aldo Moser  ITA + 20:22 min 18th Herbert Ebbers  GER + 27:24 min 19th Heinz Müller  GER 20th Hans Preiskeit  GER 21st Günther Pankoke  GER

Amateurs - 188 km space athlete country time 1 Sante Ranucci  ITA 5:36:09 h 2 Lino Grassi  ITA 5:36:09 h 3 Dino Bruni  ITA + 1:42 min 4th Adrie van Steenselen  NED + 2:04 min 5 Seamus Elliott  IRL + 2:40 min 6th Adolph Christian  AUT ? 7th Giuseppe Fallarini  ITA 8th Lothar Friedrich  SAA 9 Raymond Booty  GBR 10 Arie van Wetten  NED 11 René Pavard  FRA 12 Hans Edmund Andresen  THE 13 Stanley Arthur Brittain  GBR 14th Michel Stolker  NED 0 ... 19th Karl-Heinz Meyer  GER 31 Karl Loy  GER

literature

• Helmer Boelsen : The history of the cycling world championship , Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3936973-33-4 , p. 70
• GDR sports newspaper Deutsches Sportecho from August 29, 1955

Web links

• Results professionals at www.radsport-seite.de
• Results amateurs at www.radsportseiten.net