Günter Haritz (born 16 October 1948) is a retired

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

and

track cyclist Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...

from

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, who won the gold medal in the Men's 4.000 Team Pursuit at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, alongside

Günther Schumacher Günther Schumacher (born 27 June 1949) is a retired track cyclist and road bicycle racer born in East Germany, who was a professional rider from 1977 to 1984. He twice represented West Germany at the Summer Olympics (1972 and 1976), and won th ...

Jürgen Colombo Jürgen Colombo (born 2 September 1949) is a retired track cyclist from West Germany, who won the gold medal in the Men's 4000m Team Pursuit at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, alongside Günther Schumacher, Günter Haritz, and Udo Hempel ...

, and

Udo Hempel Udo Hempel (born 3 November 1946) is a retired road and track cyclist from West Germany, who won the gold medal in the Men's 4.000 Team Pursuit at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, alongside Günther Schumacher, Jürgen Colombo, and Günter H ...

. In 1973, together with

Peter Vonhof Peter Vonhof (born 15 January 1949) is a retired track cyclist and road bicycle racer from Germany, who represented West Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. There he won the gold medal in the Men's Team Pursuit, alo ...

Hans Lutz Hans Lutz (born 31 March 1949) is a retired track cyclist and road bicycle racer from Germany, who represented West Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. There he won the gold medal in the Men's Team Pursuit, alongside ...

and

, Haritz won the amateur world title in the team pursuit. Subsequently, he was a professional cyclist from 1973 to 1982, winning the national championship on the road in 1974 and becoming second and third in 1975 and 1976 respectively and third in 1979. The chief part of his professional career concerned racing on the track however. Haritz rode 83 Six-day races, winning 11 of them in the period 1975-1977 during which he belonged to the top 5 riders in the 'Sixes'. 7 of which he won with

René Pijnen Marinus "René" Augustinus Josephus Pijnen (born 3 September 1946) is a Dutch former racing cyclist. He became Olympic champion in the 100 km team time-trial in the 1968 Summer Olympics with Joop Zoetemelk, Fedor den Hertog and Jan Kreke ...

, 2 with

Dietrich Thurau Dietrich ("Didi") Thurau (; born 9 November 1954 in Frankfurt) is a retired German professional road bicycle racer. His biggest career achievements include winning the one-day classic, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, his home country's Deutschland T ...

(both of whom his then team-mates with

TI–Raleigh TI–Raleigh was a Dutch professional track cycling and road bicycle racing team between 1972 and 1983. In that decade the team won over 900 races. The team was created and led by Peter Post. In his own cycling career, his nickname was the ''Six D ...

), 1 with

Patrick Sercu Patrick Sercu (27 June 1944 – 19 April 2019) was a Belgian cyclist who was active on the road and track between 1961 and 1983. On track, he won the gold medal in the 1 km time trial at the 1964 Summer Olympics, as well as three world titl ...

the 1975

Six Days of Zürich The Six Days of Zürich was a Six-day racing, six-day track cycling race held annually in Zürich, Switzerland. The event was first held in 1954 and the final edition was held in 2014. Winners References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Six Days of Zur ...

and 1, in

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

, with the Frenchman

Bernard Thévenet Bernard Thévenet (; born 10 January 1948) is a retired professional cyclist. His sporting career began with ACBB Paris. He is twice a winner of the Tour de France and known for ending the reign of five-times Tour champion Eddy Merckx, though bo ...

. In the 1976 Grenoble Six, track specialist Haritz and 'road cyclist' Thévenet, who then had won the

1975 Tour de France The 1975 Tour de France was the 62nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 26 June and 20 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of . Eddy Merckx was attempting to win his sixth Tour de France, but b ...

and the 1975 and 1976 editions of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, claimed the victory against famous road cyclist

Francesco Moser Francesco Moser ( or ; ; born 19 June 1951), nicknamed "Lo sceriffo" (The sheriff), is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer. He finished on the podium of the Giro d'Italia six times including his win in the 1984 edition. Moser ...

, who, like Thévenet, was coupled with an (eminent) track specialist, Pijnen (2nd), as well as beating the equally famous road rider

Felice Gimondi Felice Gimondi (; 29 September 1942 – 16 August 2019) was an Italian professional racing cyclist. With his 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the ...

who was also with coupled an eminent track specialist,

(3rd), and notably then road champion

Joop Zoetemelk Hendrik Gerardus Joseph "Joop" Zoetemelk (; born 3 December 1946) is a Dutch former professional racing cyclist. He started and finished the Tour de France 16 times, which were both records when he retired. He also holds the distance record in T ...

(10th) and future five times Tour de France winner

Bernard Hinault Bernard Hinault (; born 14 November 1954) is a French former professional road cyclist. With 147 professional victories, including five times the Tour de France, he is often named among the greatest cyclists of all time. In his career, Hinault ...

(12th and last). Corroborating his performances in the Six-Day races in these years, he won the 1975 edition of the European championship Derny racing and in 1976 with Pijnen the prestigious European championship

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

, notably beating the Australians Danny Clark and

Donald Allan Donald John Allan (born 24 September 1949) is an Australian former cyclist who rode at the Olympic Games and Tour de France. Allan began cycling with the Blackburn Cycling Club in Melbourne. In 1970, he was paralysed in a car accident, breaki ...

(2nd) and Sercu and

Klaus Bugdahl Klaus Bugdahl (born 24 November 1934) is a retired German cyclist who was active between 1954 and 1978 both on the road and track. He won the German National Road Race in 1958. On track, he won several medals at European championships, mostly in ...

(3rd). In 1977 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

with

Wilfried Peffgen Wilfried Peffgen (1 October 1942 – 11 May 2021) was a German cyclist who was active between 1959 and 1983. Biography He won a medal at every UCI Motor-paced World Championships between 1976 and 1982, including three gold medals in 1976, 1978 a ...

, he took the bronze medal in the European championship Madison that was won by the Belgian couple Patrick Sercu,

Eddy Merckx Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (, ; born 17 June 1945), better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is among the most successful riders in the history of competitive cycling. His victorie ...

. In the

1976 Vuelta a España The 31st Edition ''Vuelta a España'' (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the three grand tours, was held from 27 April to 16 May 1976. It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of , and was won by José Pesarrodona of ...

, Haritz tested positive for doping, and left the race after the B-test also was positive.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haritz, Gunter 1948 births Living people German track cyclists German male cyclists Cyclists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of West Germany Olympic gold medalists for West Germany Sportspeople from Heidelberg Olympic medalists in cycling German cycling road race champions Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Cyclists from Baden-Württemberg 20th-century German people