Sepia Saturday 138; Ferdi Kübler;

Ferdinand "Ferdi" Kübler (born 24 July 1919) is a retired Swiss cyclist with over 400 professional victories, including the 1950 Tour de France and the 1951 World Road Race Championship.

Kubler was born in Marthalen. He began racing professionally in 1940 but his early career was limited to Switzerland by the Nazi occupation elsewhere. He was multiple Swiss national champion and a three time winner of the Tour de Suisse.

Kubler's most successful years in international racing were 1950-1952, when the classics had resumed after the Second World War. He won the La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, both in 1951 and 1952. He was also World Road Race Champion in 1951, having placed second in 1949 and third in 1950.
He rode the Giro d'Italia from 1950–1952, placing fourth once, and third twice. Kubler abandoned the 1947 and 1949 Tours de France, despite an early stage win in each. In the 1950 Tour, he benefited from the absence of Fausto Coppi, sidelined after a crash in the Giro. Overcoming Gino Bartali, Kubler became champion by over nine minutes, also winning three stages. In the 1954 Tour, Kubler won the points jersey and came second behind Louison Bobet
Kubler was a high-spirited and impulsive rider sometimes given to strategically unwise attacks, out of exuberance and competitive drive. He was known as “the cowboy” because of his penchant for Stetson hats. He retired from racing in 1957 at 38. He is the oldest living Tour de France winner.

Full name Ferdinand Kübler
Nickname Ferdi, The Cowboy, The Eagle of Adliswil
Born July 24, 1919 (age 93)
Marthalen, Switzerland

http://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com/blog/2009/7/24/ferdi-kubler-at-90-years-is-the-oldest-living-tdf-winner.html

Sepia Saturday; 138

Text/Photos courtesy Wikipedia

Friday; who is perfect?

Billy perfect in his own way...

Breasts like Granite and a brain like Swiss Cheese

- Billy Wilder on Marilyn Monroe

♥

He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.

– William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway) 

♥

The only genius with an IQ of 60.

- Gore Vidal on Andy Warhol

♥

She’s so stupid she returns bowling balls because they’ve got holes in them.

- Joan Rivers on Bo Derek

♥

An empty suit that goes to funerals and plays golf.

- Ross Perot on Dan Quayl

Gold cannot be pure, and people cannot be perfect. 

- Chinese Proverb

Link  Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;

Thursday; dreamer...

Dreamtime/Photo Ts


♥

Dream on dear one 

In the wondrous world  of sleep;

No sound no sigh

Escapes the drowsy deep;

The mists lay low

The night wind  moans; 

The dreamer keeps

His mind on loan;

Till morning light reaps

Heart and soul and dreams. 

♥Titania

©Photo/Text Ts

Wednesday; Mirror, mirror on the wall...

What is beauty?

My 16 year old granddaughter;

 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day   Sonnets: XVIII  Shakespeare

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

Audrey Hepburn

Beauty without expression is boring.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo/my garden

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
Voltaire

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

Edgar Allan Poe

Photo/my garden;

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

Edgar Allan Poe

©Ts

Monday; sunny...

Seductress; Photo/my garden  August 2o12;

…a beautiful morning has opened its doors; the days are warming up, still a chill in the air  at night and early morning.  I can’t wait to be in the garden. There is so much work waiting but it is so pleasurable and at my discretion.  The butcherbird has come back, heard him  this morning the first time; what a lovely repertoire.  24 days to the first day of spring….

©Photo/Text Ts


Link   Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;

Sepia Saturday; 137; skiing;

A little history of the skis; As I have the tendency to be different I am into skiing while the summer Olympics are on.  (It is winter here!)

Kiandra has a unique place in Australian history:




   It was Australia's only snowbound gold mining village


         It was the birthplace of skiing in Australia

Link  http://www.kiandrahistory.net/

In the winter of 1861 Scandinavian miners introduced snow shoeing (skiing) to Australia. Over the following years ski races were held annually on Township Hill at Kiandra and Australia's first ski club was established.




Members of the Kiandra Ski Club believe that Alpine downhill racing as an organised sport commenced in Australia
“Early skiing in Kiandra also featured competition, in fact a type of competition that was far ahead of its time.”
“I would like to commend you for having organised the first Alpine ski races in the history of our sport.” International Ski Federation. 10 May 2011


 At Kiandra, Australia, alpine skiing commenced in 1861, from the late 1880s and for the following twenty years, ladies’ downhill events were principally dominated by Barbara, Margaret and Mary Yan, the daughters of a Chinese man from the mountains of China and a lady from the Bavarian mountains in Germany. Barbara Yan won the "Downhill Alpine" event in August 1887. The results for children aged ten, are also recorded for the same year
Mr. Frank Yan won the 1896 major downhill event, and was presented with a gold fob and a pair of skis, 2740mm in length, by NSW Member of Parliament, Mr. G. MillerIn 1908, the first documented International and Intercontinental “Downhill Skiing Carnival” was held at Kiandra, Australia.

some of the history of  Kiandra;

For centuries before European settlement Aboriginal tribes gathered in the Kiandra (Giandara) district in summer to feed on bogong moths. When the first Europeans arrived early in the nineteenth century they used the high country for summer pasture for sheep and cattle - though stories abound of heavy losses of stock trapped by early snow-falls.

In 1859 the world came to Kiandra. By March 1860, 10,000 prospectors from all parts of the globe were scouring the district in search of gold. A timber village sprang up among the mud and slush of the Snowy River Diggings, as they were called, the Eucumbene River then being known as the Snowy River.

Within 18 months the rush had moved on, leaving only a few hundred diggers, including a substantial number of Chinese. Before it did the diggings were the scene of one of the most turbulent gold rushes in New South Wales. Dubbed Mount Rascal due to frequency of bushranging and robberies, there were anti-Chinese riots, while the antics of one of the most controversial Gold Commissioners in the colony led to a Parliamentary Inquiry.

 The later history of Kiandra includes the impact of the massive engineering feat of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme, before the town was absorbed into the Kosioscko National Park and turned into a ghost town. More recently the area has become renowned for its recreational fishing and bushwalking, while skiing has continued with the establishment of the Mount Selwyn Ski Resort.

How elegant  and  up to date  in days gone by...life was easy, fun and wonderful on the snowfields!
This was the famous Kandahar binding! The newest skisticks were made from aluminium. My father's were made from bamboo.


The Roberts of Kandahar Challenge Cup was run in 1911 at Montana, Switzerland. Contestants skied an unmarked course against the clock down the Plaine Morte Glacier over rough snow and enough natural hazards to prevent contestants from simply running straight like the longboarders. "The Kandahar" was thereafter (and still is) held annually at Mürren, Switzerland. Emphasis on the importance of the descent prevailed in British racing and in everyday skiing as well.


The second bud of alpine racing was invented by British ski mountaineer Arnold Lunn in January, 1922, on the grounds of the Palace Hotel in Mürren where he persuaded some friends to race through a series of paired short wands stuck in the snow. The race was against the stopwatch and without regard to form, in contrast to contemporary Swiss controlled course contests where form counted.
Lunn’s slalom cleverly played speed off against control. The delightful tension between these opposites made the race so intriguing that its popularity spread quickly. With slalom gaining popularity, it became possible to run alpine combined races, scoring slalom and downhill together, as jumping and cross country had been scored jointly for Nordic combined titles. In 1924, Lunn helped found Mürren’s Kandahar Ski Club to promote alpine combined racing.
In the 1920s, the popularity of alpine skiing began to rise, thanks to the spread of ski guides teaching the stem technique. One by one, alpine resort hotels and inns arranged to stay open in winter to accommodate a growing group of alpine skiers in places like Kitzbühel, St. Anton and St. Moritz. Some exerpts courtesy Wikipedia 

Ski, skip or run to  Sepia Saturday 137

Friday; a round Ninety;

Happy 90is Birthday, Uncle Richard;

Always remember your love for the mountains;

our visits and holidays.

I wish you and the family a wonderful day.