Road Race, Individual, Men

The 1960 road race was a mass start race held over 175.38 km., with the riders completing 12 laps of a 14.615 km. loop, termed the Grottarossa Circuit. On each loop, they ascended a slightly steep climb, and a series of switchbacks, just after the 6 km. point, and then ascended gently for the next 2½ km. The course began on the Via Flaminia, turned left onto the Via Di Grottarossa, and then returned to the start along the Via Cassia. The race was started in tremendous heat (38º C/100º F). At least one cyclist, Korean No Do-Cheon, succumbed to the heat and had to be carried off to the hospital. The Danish team did not start the race after the death of their compatriot Knud Enemark Jensen in the team time trial.

East Germany’s Gustav-Adolf Schur had won the Amateur Road Race World Championship in both 1958 and 1959, the first rider ever to defend that title. In 1960, the title went to his teammate, Bernhard Eckstein. Both riders competed in Rome and Schur had to be favored, but he was marked closely and never figured in any breakaways. The race began at 0900. On the second lap, the Netherlands’ Lex van Kreuningen, broke away and opened up 46 seconds on the peloton by the fourth lap. On lap five, he was joined by his teammate Jan Hugens, and they led together thru lap six. On the next lap, seven other riders caught the Dutch tandem, to make a lead group of nine. This group included Italy’s Livio Trapè, and the Soviet Union’s Viktor Kapitonov. Over the next two laps a few other riders joined the leaders, but on lap 10, Trapè and Kapitonov went off the front together, and had 52 seconds on the peleton at the end of that circuit. As the two neared the end of lap 11, Kapitonov took off and started a mad sprint, thinking the race was ending. But they had one more lap to go, and the two entered it with a lead of 2:29. At the finish, Kapitonov had enough left to repeat his sprint and narrowly defeat Trapè. This greatly disappointed the Italian crowd, who had hoped for an Italian win, which would have completed a sweep of the cycling events. A pack of 39 riders closed on the two leaders in the last lap, but finished 20 seconds down. This group included Schur and Eckstein, and the entire German team was placed consecutively from 20-23 place.

The 1960 cycling road race has been a difficult event to document statistically as the Official Report lists only the 76 finishing riders. It mentions that there were 142 riders from 42 nations, but the other 66 riders are not listed directly. There are some lap results that help identify the non-finishers. We have been able to identify what we believe is the correct list of non-finishers by using various sources. We have contacted numerous national cycling federations, asking for their information on their national riders. In a few cases, we contacted some of the supposed competitors directly. We finally found a copy of the Official Program from the day of the race, which listed the starters, and was accompanied by a list entitled “Entry Modifications,” which noted when some riders did not start and some were replaced by other riders on their teams. We believe the results listed below are the best representation of who actually started on 30 August 1960. However, there are also problems with who actually finished the race in certain positions, based on personal reports from the riders, and photographs of the finish. We have footnoted these as necessary, but these results do not quite follow the results in the Official Report precisely.

Part of the problem may arise from the actions of the treasurer of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), Albert Verougstraete, who was the judge at the finish line who was responsible for determining the final placements. But the Belgian judge listed the top 10 finishers and then left to have lunch, stating, “I’m hungry. I’ll issue a full list sometime tonight.”