By the way, Blik’s column: Mud kings of the nation

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Identical twins Christoph and Andreas Hüsser were the dirt kings of the country during the heyday of motocross and won two consecutive world titles as a team in the 1980s. Two Aargau warriors are now 70 years old.

The beginning of her story is not romantic. “We were not dream children,” says Christophe, who is twenty minutes younger than his brother. After the birth, the mother brings the two boys to a small farm in Stetten, Aargau, where Christoph and Andreas grow up with their grandparents. “We had clean clothes and enough food. We didn’t miss anything,” says Christophe.

Even as schoolchildren, they take part. I mow the grass with my grandfather early in the morning, then milk the cows and go to school in rubber boots. “When the hay harvest was coming, you harnessed two cows to a cart and went out into the field. There was nothing to do with school back then,” says Christophe.

There is a gravel pit not far from his grandparents’ farm. Motocross races are held there. Christophe had already earned some money working in construction and at the age of 17 he bought his first cross bike. His solo career has taken him to the top of the world, in Russia he performs in front of 70,000 spectators. His brother Andreas becomes one of the top “Plumpies”, as passengers are called in wheelchair racing.

Already at an established age, they decide to start together as a team. They built a training slope in their grandparents’ meadow, trained hard all winter and competed in the 1987 World Championships. The Swiss contingent has been completed and is leaving for Liechtenstein.

In the first year they took fifth place at the World Championships, and two years later they became world champions. In dirty conditions they are in a class of their own. “We traveled all over Europe with our bus and trailer converted into a motor home. The entry fee was one thousand francs, and for each victory in the race – one thousand francs. After the World Cup races in Holland, the Czech Republic or Germany, we headed straight back to be back at work at six o’clock on Monday.”

Before and after them, Bollhalder/Büsser, Bechtold/Fuss and most recently Führer/Käser also created a sensation in sidecar motorcycles and ushered in the golden age of motocross.

At the end of their careers they organize races in their homeland. When an Austrian in the racing arena shared advice with Christoph Hüsser that it might be possible to make money with mobile toilets, a business idea was born. There are currently more than 1,000 Hüsser toilets installed on construction sites and fairgrounds in northwestern Switzerland. Somehow he stayed true to the dirt.

The Hüsser boys achieved athletic success and prosperity. With hard work and assertiveness, with an iron will, which is not least due to the deprivation of young people.

What hasn’t changed over the years is the deep connection we have with each other. “When Andreas is sick, I feel it. Then I don’t even have to call him,” says Christophe. And shrugs. “That’s what happens to identical twins.”

Source: Blick