Thaddäus "Thaddy" Robl (22 October 1877 – 18 June 1910) was a German professional cyclist who was active between 1894 and 1910, initially in road racing, later predominantly in
motor-paced racing
Motor-paced racing and motor-paced cycling refer to cycling behind a pacer in a car or more usually on a motorcycle. The cyclist (or stayer in this case) follows as close as they can to benefit from the slipstream of their pacer. The first paced r ...
.
From 1895 to 1898 he obtained several podium finishes in long-distance road races, the most emblematic of which is his 3rd place in the 1898
Bordeaux - Paris.
In motor-paced racing he won five European titles (1901–1904, 1907) and the
world championships
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...
in 1901 and 1902, he finished in third place in 1903.
[
After retiring from cycling he became passionate with flying the early planes. In a flight demonstration on 18 June 1910 in ]Szczecin
Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...
(then German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
) he fell from a height of about 75 meters. This was the first death of a civil pilot on the German ground. In 1947, a street in Munich was named after him.[
]
Palmares
;1895
:3rd, Wien
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
- Salzburg
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:3rd, Triest
Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the regional decentralization entity of Trieste.
Trieste is located at the head ...
- Graz
Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...
- Wien
:3rd, Straßburg
Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department and the official seat of the European Parliament.
The cit ...
- Basel
Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
- Straßburg
:5th, Rund um Mitteldeutschland
;1896
:2nd, German Motor-paced Championship, Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
;1898
:2nd, Bol d'Or - Paris
See also
* Achille Germain
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robl, Thaddaus
1877 births
1910 deaths
German male cyclists
People from Garmisch-Partenkirchen (district)
Cyclists from Upper Bavaria
Cyclists from Bavaria
UCI Track Cycling World Champions (men)
German track cyclists
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1910
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in Germany