August Lehr

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August Lehr (February 26, 1871 – July 15, 1921) was a German racing cyclist from Frankfurt. He worked as a salesman and began racing on a penny-farth­ing bicycle. From 1888 to 1894 he won the German championship seven times. At age 17, in 1888, he won the English championship in the ordinary class, an unofficial world title for long distances. In 1893 he switched to a safety bicycle, and in 1894 he won the ICA Track Cycling World Championships in Antwerp, becoming Germany’s first track world champion. He is listed with about 260 career wins (some sources say 227), but racing did not pay the bills, so he retired in 1898. He helped start the Six Days of Berlin in 1909. Lehr died in 1921 from gastrointestinal bleeding during a rowing trip near Ludwigslust. A bronze memorial in his honor was placed next to Frankfurt’s Waldstadion, funded by the Opel brothers, but was destroyed in 2005 during stadium renovations.