|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Herbert Schürmann was born in
Münster/Germany in 1925 into a family, which was strongly dedicated
to the track cycling sport.
After his POW time in England he could start his
"cycling career" only in his 20es and it was rather short and limited to
local competitions.
|
. |
Herbert first learned the profession
of a carpenter and later studied engineering and architecture with very
good results.
As a young architect he started to build houses in his very much destroyed home town. But of course he did not loose the contact to the cycling scene and when his father Clemens suffered a stroke, he joined his father's architect office in order to continue the tradition. Until his father died, Herbert worked together with him on several tracks and learned all about tracks in praxis and in theory. |
| Had his father Clemens worked only
in Central Europe, Herbert spread the business of designing cycle tracks
all over the world.
Not only did he build the tracks for the Olympic Games in Rome (1960), Mexico City (1968), Munich (1972), Seoul (1986) and Barcelona (1990), but also for many Continental or other Games. He improved his father's construction methods
by own experiences and adaptation of more modern engineering achievements.
Together with the UCI (International
Cycling Union) he worked out and set up the regulations for the design
of cycle tracks.
|
 |
| His big fight was for shorter track length's.
In the beginning there were only official tracks with length's of 400 or
333 m. Herbert found it always unattractive and also to expensive to compete
only on such long tracks.
Thanks to also his constant effort the official track length's were first reduced to a minimum of 285 m (3 1/2 laps for 1 kilometer) and later to the today's minimum length of 250 m. |
 |
| Herbert's life was the cycling sport. As his
father he became the sport director of the 6-day-race in his hometown for
many years and he also founded and organized a road race from the Netherlands
to Münster, which saw f.i. Eddy Merckx as the winner in his last amateur
race.
On the track in Münster he organized the race "1001-times around" in memory of his father A tough one-stage team race over 154 km. Besides you could find him on every 6-day-track and very often he was attending the World Championships all around the world. |
 |
Herbert retired from the business in 1990 after
38 active year of track designing.
Only in his time he built 55 cycle tracks worldwide, the last 8 already together with the next generation of track designer, his oldest son Ralph. Herbert Schürmann died in 1994 with 69 years
of age.
|
| 1st: Clemens Schuermann | Home | 3rd : Ralph Schuermann |
