UCI Road World Championships 1960

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The UCI Road World Championships in 1960 took place on August 13th and 14th on the Sachsenring near Hohenstein-Ernstthal . It was the 27th  world championships in road cycling and the only ones in the history of cycling that were held in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The Belgian Rik Van Looy won the professional world title , Bernhard Eckstein from the GDR won the amateurs and the British starter Beryl Burton won the women . Before that, the World Railroad Championships had been held on the Alfred Rosch Kampfbahn in Leipzig and Karl-Marx-Stadt .

The World Championships had already been shaped in advance by efforts by the GDR government to use both the organization itself and the possible successes of GDR athletes for propaganda purposes. The surprising victory of Bernhard Eckstein in the individual race of the amateurs, which was based on a tactical waiver by his teammate and defending champion Gustav-Adolf Schur , made the World Cup one of the most memorable sporting events that ever took place in the GDR.

prehistory

GDR postage stamp for the 1960 road cycling world championship

The award of the world championships to the GDR by the international cycling association UCI was not without controversy for political reasons. Resistance to the decision came in particular from sports political institutions as well as from some of the mass media in the Federal Republic of Germany , as they feared that the GDR's image would improve. On the other hand, in favor of the expected propaganda use of the event, the GDR government accepted the hosting of professional competitions , although this contradicted the GDR's sports doctrine. The President of the UCI, the Italian Adriano Rodoni , was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver with the opening of the World Cup .

Both the cycling fans in the GDR as well as the party and state leadership expected the title defense and thus the third win in a row by the popular driver Gustav Adolf Schur, known as "Täve", for the amateurs' race. In the same year he had won two stages of the Peace Drive and the GDR Championship for the fourth time in a row, the GDR team had also won the team classification of the Peace Drive in front of the Belgian team. The newspapers in the GDR reported accordingly in advance with special pages and supplements. Up to 500,000 spectators were expected for the race itself. Dozens of special trains of the Deutsche Reichsbahn were used to cope with the rush to the Sachsenring .

Amateur racing

New world champion:
Bernhard Eckstein (GDR)

The amateur race on August 13, 1960 led over the 8.7 kilometer long circuit of the Sachsenring, which had to be completed 20 times, resulting in a total distance of 174.62 kilometers. The race started in rainy weather, which also had an impact on the number of spectators. The information about this varies between 150,000 and 300,000 visitors directly on the route.

During the course of the race, the Italian Enzo Cerbini and Bernhard Eckstein first pulled away from the main field. Six other drivers, among them Livio Trapè from Italy and the Belgian Willy Vanden Berghen , took up the pursuit of the top duo. The resulting eight-man breakaway group was three laps before the end of the race around 90 seconds ahead of the main field with defending champion Gustav Adolf Schur. In the third to last lap, Schur increased the pace, which reduced the lead of the leading group to around 30 seconds. By further increasing the tempo, Schur managed to approach the group alone.

On the penultimate lap, he finally reached the leading drivers, from whom Willy Vanden Berghen, however, had left alone shortly before and had a lead of around 30 seconds at the beginning of the last lap. From the chasing group only Schur and Eckstein tried to catch up with the Belgian. They succeeded in doing this on Badberg, a steep climb around four kilometers from their destination. Shortly afterwards, Eckstein left the group of three alone. Vanden Berghen hesitated and stayed with Schur, as he assumed that Eckstein would be subordinate to Schur's third victory as a helper. Schur, however, did not pursue Eckstein and thus slowed the Belgian, who continued to stay with him. He noticed too late that the defending champion was making no attempt to catch up with his team-mate. With this waiver, Eckstein won the race with a seven second lead over Schur, who won the sprint against the Belgian.

A few years later, Vanden Berghen himself commented positively on Gustav Adolf Schur's sportsmanship. Egon Adler as 9th completed the positive overall result of the GDR team, Günter Lörke , Lothar Höhne and Erich Hagen finished 26th, 34th and 50th. The riders of the Association of German Cyclists could not place among the 30 best active athletes.

Professional racing

The professional race also took place on August 14, 1960 at the Sachsenring and ran in 32 laps over a distance of 279.3 kilometers. Of the 67 athletes who started, 32 reached the rating. The winner with a time of seven hours, 47 minutes and 27 seconds was the Belgian Rik Van Looy , who won the sprint from the main peloton coming to the finish in front of the French André Darrigade and Pino Cerami from Belgium. The field of drivers had previously been closed for a long time, only the French drivers kept trying to break away. However, these fizzled out again and again, as the Belgians kept the field under control. After an 18-man group pulled away on the penultimate lap, the Belgians took over the lead in the final kilometers, Pino Cerami set the pace for Van Loy, who irresistibly pulled away shortly before the finish. As the best German, Hennes Junkermann came in 6th. As the second German, Lothar Friedrich came in 26th, the other six German participants gave up prematurely.

Women's World Cup

Women's starting list

Participants from seven countries were registered for the 3rd women's road world championship, including last year's title holder Yvonne Reynders . On August 13, the field of female drivers at the Sachsenring had to cover a distance of 61 km on seven laps. After an hour, 54 minutes and 39 seconds and a solo trip, the British Beryl Burton won with over three minutes ahead of the Belgian starter Rosa Sels and Elisabeth Kleinhans from the GDR. For Beryl Burton it was the second title at this world championship besides the victory in the 3,000 meter single pursuit in the world championship competitions in track cycling . With Karin Hänsel (6th) and Renate Krämer (10th), the GDR Cycling Association was also able to achieve good results among women. The Association of German Cyclists did not send any female riders into the race.

Propaganda and Legend

Both the enthusiasm of sports fans in the GDR over the double victory of Bernhard Eckstein and Gustav Adolf Schur, the most popular GDR athlete at the time, as well as the propaganda exploitation of the result contributed to the fact that the race achieved a legendary status in the sports annals of the GDR . The behavior of the team captain was highlighted in the GDR press with headlines like “Schur gives Eckstein the title! Our world champion renounces victory for his friend! ”Presented as a selfless decision in favor of his friend Eckstein. Schur, who was considered the top favorite as the winner of the last two World Championships, was hyped up to be the real hero of the race even before the winner Eckstein. The outcome was, among other things, the "most tactically great achievement in the history of cycling" ( Leipziger People's newspaper of August 14, 1960). The result, which was seen as a sensation and a triumph, was seen as the victory of the “socialist collective spirit” and as evidence of the superiority of the socialist social system . Täve Schur, who has been “ GDR Sportsman of the Year ” seven times to date , has finally become a legend and consequently also won the athlete survey this year.

Results

Amateurs - 174.62 km
space	Surname	country	time
01	Bernhard Eckstein	GDR	4:43:31 h
02	Gustav-Adolf Schur	GDR	+ 0:17 min
03	Willy Vanden Berghen	BEL	+ 0:17 min
04th	Yuri Melichow	URS	all + 0:22 min
05	Yevgeny Klewzow	URS
06th	Roland Lacombe	FRA
07th	Jacques Simon	FRA
08th	Kurt Postl	AUT
09	Egon Adler	GDR
10	Renzo Cerbini	ITA
11	Ben Mohamed	MAR
12	Raymond Reaux	FRA
13	Stanislaw Gazda	POLE
14th	Alexander Petrov	URS
15th	Gilbert Maes	BEL
16	Thomas Laidlaw	GBR
17th	William Bradley	GBR
18th	Francisek Kosela	POLE
19th	Anton Ruiner	AUT
20th	Erwin Jaisli	SUI
21st	Livio Trapè	ITA
22nd	Jan Kudra	POLE
23	Jaques Gestraud	FRA
24	Cornelius Lotz	NED
25th	Herman Schmiediger	SUI
26th	Günter Loerke	GDR
27	Alexander Pavlov	URS
28	Roger Thull	LUX
29	Viktor Kapitanov	URS
30th	Gainan Saidchushin	URS
0 ...
34	Lothar Höhne	GDR
50	Erich Hagen	GDR

Professionals - 279.3 km
space	country	Surname	time
01	Rik Van Looy	BEL	7:47:27 h
02	André Darrigade	FRA	+ 0 min
03	Pino Cerami	BEL	+ 0 min
04th	Imerio Massignan	ITA	every + 0 min
05	Raymond Poulidor	FRA
06th	Hennes Junkermann	GER
07th	Charly Gaul	LUX
08th	Piet ladies	NED
09	Jacques Anquetil	FRA
10	Brian Robinson	GBR
11	Jef Planckaert	BEL
12	Raymond Mastrotto	FRA
13	Graziano Battistini	ITA
14th	Jean Stablinski	FRA
15th	Frans De Mulder	BEL
16	Henry Anglade	FRA
17th	Seamus Elliott	IRL
18th	Frans Aerenhouts	BEL	+ 0:18 min
19th	Emile Daems	BEL	+ 0:22 min
20th	Nino Defilippis	ITA	+ 0:22 min
21st	Piet Rentmeester	NED	+ 0:44 min
22nd	From Geldermans	NED	+ 0:44 min
23	Fernando Manzaneque Sánchez	ESP	all + 0:51 min
24	Miguel Poblet	ESP
25th	Gastone Nencini	ITA
26th	Lothar Friedrich	GER
27	Marcel Rohrbach	FRA	all + 0:57 min
28	Jan Adriaensens	BEL
29	René Strehler	SUI
30th	Jean Graczyk	FRA

Women - 61 km
space	Surname	country	time
01	Beryl Burton	GBR	1:54:39 ​​h
02	Rosa Sels	BEL	+ 3:39 min
03	Elisabeth Kleinhans	GDR	+ 3:39 min
04th	Vera Gorbacheva	URS	all + 3:39 min
05	Marie-Thérèse Naessens	BEL
06th	Karin Hansel	GDR
07th	Yvonne Reynders	BEL
08th	Lyli Herse	FRA
09	Maria Lukschina	URS
10	Renate Kramer	GDR
11	Elsy Jacobs	LUX
0 ...
15th	Renée Vissac	FRA
20th	Andrée Vaudel	FRA

literature

• Helmer Boelsen : The history of the cycling world championship . Covadonga Verlag, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-936973-33-4 , p. 80
• Wolfgang Schoppe / Werner Ruttkus : In the shine and shadow of the rainbow. Self-published, 2005, ISBN 3-00-005315-8
• GDR sports newspaper Deutsches Sportecho , issue from August 15, 1960

Web links

• UCI Road World Championships 1960 on cycling4fans.de