Australian Cycling Career
Opperman was born in Rochester, Victoria in 1904 of British-German descent. His father had worked as a butcher, miner, timber-cutter and coach driver. Hubert learned as a child to plough with six horses and to ride bareback. He attended several schools and delivered Post Office telegrams by bicycle.
He came third in a cycling race at 17 in 1921. The prize was a racing bike by Malvern Star Cycles, a cycle shop in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern. The proprietor, Bruce Small, was so impressed he offered Opperman a role in the business, which helped turn both into household names in Australia.
In 1924 at 20 Opperman won the Australian road titles, and then again in 1926, 1927, and 1929.
Read more about this topic: Hubert Opperman
Famous quotes containing the words australian, cycling and/or career:
“The Australian mind, I can state with authority, is easily boggled.”
—Charles Osborne (b. 1927)
“If all feeling for grace and beauty were not extinguished in the mass of mankind at the actual moment, such a method of locomotion as cycling could never have found acceptance; no man or woman with the slightest aesthetic sense could assume the ludicrous position necessary for it.”
—Ouida [Marie Louise De La Ramée] (1839–1908)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)