Aerial view from 1938 of the Open Racecourse and the newly built Hallenstadion in Oerlikon
Image: Keystone
Hans Knecht from Zurich won the professional road race at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich on September 1, 1946 in pouring rain
Image: Keystone
The trained dyer became the first Swiss world champion at a road cycling world championship
Image: Keystone
Ferdy Kübler, winner of the Tour de Suisse 1942, rides a lap of honor on the open race track in Zurich-Oerlikon
Image: Keystone
Today, evening races are held on the open racecourse every Tuesday in the summer months
Image: Keystone
The legendary Hugo Koblet (right) and Ferdy Kübler at the Zurich six-day race in 1956
Image: Keystone
The Züri Metzgete, shown here in 1941 on Neumühlequai along the Limmat, was one of the most important one-day races on the professional circuit for decades until it disappeared from the racing calendar in 2007 due to financial concerns
Image: Keystone
Aerial view from 1938 of the Open Racecourse and the newly built Hallenstadion in Oerlikon
Image: Keystone
Hans Knecht from Zurich won the professional road race at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich on September 1, 1946 in pouring rain
Image: Keystone
The trained dyer became the first Swiss world champion at a road cycling world championship
Image: Keystone
Ferdy Kübler, winner of the Tour de Suisse 1942, rides a lap of honor on the open race track in Zurich-Oerlikon
Image: Keystone
Today, evening races are held on the open racecourse every Tuesday in the summer months
Image: Keystone
The legendary Hugo Koblet (right) and Ferdy Kübler at the Zurich six-day race in 1956
Image: Keystone
The Züri Metzgete, shown here in 1941 on Neumühlequai along the Limmat, was one of the most important one-day races on the professional circuit for decades until it disappeared from the racing calendar in 2007 due to financial concerns
Image: Keystone
For the first time in almost 80 years, Zurich is hosting the Road Cycling World Championships. The city can look back on a glorious cycling history.
Over the next few days, Zurich will become the hub of the cycling world. For the city on the Limmat, it is in a sense a return to its sporting roots. Having risen to become an economic and financial metropolis in the industrial age, the city was once also Switzerland's top address for cycling - with global appeal.
Zurich hosted the Road Cycling World Championships three times: in 1923 (then only for amateurs), 1929 and 1946. The last event in particular, the first after the Second World War, was memorable from a local perspective. In 1946, Hans Knecht was the first Swiss to wear the coveted rainbow jersey.
From dyer to world champion
The trained dyer from Zurich Albisrieden, already world champion among the amateurs in 1938, beat the favorites in the pouring rain and won in front of 50,000 enthusiastic spectators. There were 32 professionals at the start, only 17 of whom reached the finish line. The rush was so great that soldiers and police had to push the crowd back at the award ceremony.
Then, at the beginning of the 1950s, the golden age of cycling arrived in this country with Ferdy Kübler and Hugo Koblet. The two Zurich residents are still the only Swiss winners of the Tour de France. Their rivalry thrilled the crowds and triggered an unprecedented cycling euphoria in Zurich.
Like Knecht, Kübler and Koblet, the "Züri Metzgete", the Open Racecourse Oerlikon and the six-day race in the Hallenstadion have a firm place in Zurich's cycling history.
A cycling monument
Only the Open Racecourse in Oerlikon has survived. The 333.333-metre-long oval was built in 1912 as the world's first prestressed concrete construction and is considered a masterpiece of architectural history. At peak times, thousands of people made a pilgrimage to the races every Sunday. Today, the racecourse is the oldest operating sports facility in Switzerland.
It has been threatened with demolition several times because there was no money to run it or alternative plans were made for a retirement center, indoor swimming pool or multi-storey parking lot. But to the delight of cycling nostalgics, it never came to that.
Although the glory days are a thing of the past, a community of interest known as the Open Racecourse Interest Group (IGOR) ensures that the facility is kept alive. In the warmer months, evening races are held in the heart of Oerlikon on Tuesdays, weather permitting. Today, the Open Racecourse is a listed building in the canton of Zurich. On Sunday, it is the starting point for the men's time trial.
Sport and party in the "Wädli Temple"
Right next door is the Hallenstadion, which opened in 1939. Due to the unpredictable weather conditions, races had to be canceled time and again, which is why the construction of a covered velodrome was initiated in the immediate vicinity. The first six-day race was held there in 1954. Countless events followed, with smoky nights and races lasting until the early hours of the morning. The Hallenstadion was Zurich's most frequented nightclub. While the cyclists rode in circles on the old wooden track below, the party went on in the stands above.
But the audience lost interest more and more. The derniere followed in 2001. Six years later, the traditional cycling event was relaunched following the renovation of the Hallenstadion, but even shortening it to four evenings didn't help. The event could no longer be financed. The last event was held in 2014 under the name "Sixday Nights".
One year later, financial worries also sealed the end of the "Züri-Metzgete", which was founded in 1910 and was ultimately only held as an amateur race. The "Zurich Championships", as Switzerland's oldest cycling race was originally called, was one of the most important one-day races on the professional circuit for decades until 2006.
Now the world's cycling elite are once again making a stop in Zurich. A touch of the good old days - and new stories being written.
SDA
