Kuebler, first Swiss Tour de France champion, dies at 97

ZURICH ( Reuters) - Ferdinand "Ferdy" Kuebler, the first Swiss cyclist to win the Tour de France, died on Thursday in a Zurich hospital at the age of 97 following a brief illness, the Swiss Cycling federation said on its website.

Kuebler was 31 in 1950 when he won that year's 4,690 kilometre (2,914 mile) edition of the Tour de France.

A year later, he won the world championship race in Varese, Italy.

Although he claimed victory in the Tour of Switzerland three times, it took him a decade as a professional before he won the sport's most prestigious race.

Kuebler, known by Swiss fans as " Ferdy National", is one of only two Swiss Tour de France winners along with Hugo Koblet who claimed victory in 1951. Koblet died in 1964 in a car crash.

(Reporting by John Miller, editing by Ed Osmond)