Fritz Ryser

Fritz Ryser (26 May 1873 – 13 February 1916) was a Swiss cyclist. He won the UCI Motor-paced World Championships in 1908 and finished in third place in 1901. The same year he turned professional and won a national title in motor-paced racing. Although in 1908 he became the first Swiss cyclist to win a world title in this discipline, his career was marred with bad luck. Eight days after the race, his pacer Joseph Black died in a race in Düsseldorf. Next year Ryser himself got into a serious accident in Berlin – his pacer Emil Borchardt while trying to avoid a fallen rider hit the stands; his motorcycle exploded killing nine people. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Ryser was detained for alleged espionage while racing in Poland,