1899: A Champion Road Racing Cyclist Begins His Life’s Journey in Switzerland

July 10, 1899

Heinrich “Heiri” Suter, who achieved widespread renown as a champion road racing cyclist, was born in the municipality of Gränichen in north-central Switzerland. During the course of his career, he won a total of 58 professional cycling races and in the process established some noteworthy records.

On March 18, 1923, for example, Suter became the first non-Belgian to win the Tour of Flanders cycling classic. He won that race — the seventh running of the Tour of Flanders cycling classic — in a three-man sprint with Belgian competitors Charles Deruyter (1890-1955) and Albert Dejonghe (1894-1981). Two weeks later, Suter won the Paris-Roubaix professional bicycle road race in northern France. This victory made him first person to win both that race and the Tour of Flanders cycling classic in the same year.

Suter also made history in his native country by winning the Züri-Metzgete cycling race in Zürich, Switzerland’s largest city, in 1919, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1928, and 1928. He holds the record for the most first-place finishes in that longstanding one-day race. In addition, Suter won the annual one-day competition known as the Swiss National Road Race Championship a total of five times (in 1920, 1921,1922, 1926, and 1929). He shares the record for the most victories in this race with Ferdinand Kübler (1919-2016), who finished first in 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, and 1954.

Suter died in the municipality of Bülach in northeastern Switzerland on November 6, 1978. He was 79. (The accompanying photo of Suter was taken in 1926.)

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on Heiri Suter, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heiri_Suter