Günter Haritz

Günter Haritz

Günter Haritz (left) with René Pijnen at the Munich six-day race in 1976
To person
Date of birth	October 16, 1948
nation	Germany
discipline	Street
height	1.80 meters
Racing weight	76 kilograms
End of career	1980
Most important successes
Olympic games 1972 - team pursuit UCI track world championships 1970, 1973 - Team Pursuit (Amateurs)
Last updated: January 8, 2020

Günter Haritz (born October 16, 1948 in Heidelberg ) is a former German racing cyclist .

Athletic career

Günter Haritz was a specialist in team pursuit and six-day races . He was one of the “ gold four ” of the national coach Gustav Kilian , who won the world championship twice - in 1970 and 1973 - and won the gold medal at the 1972 Olympic Games (with Jürgen Colombo , Udo Hempel , Günther Schumacher and Peter Vonhof ).

After the second World Cup victory in 1973, Haritz, known as "the lightning bolt from Leimen ", joined the pros. He had previously won a number of six-day amateur races. In the following years he started in 83 six-day races, of which he won eleven. He won seven races together with René Pijnen , two with Dietrich Thurau and one each with Patrick Sercu and Bernard Thévenet . In 1976 he became European champion in two-man team driving with Pijnen . Overall, he was able to win national championship titles in four disciplines ( road racing , omnium , team pursuit and two-man team driving) in the course of his career .

Günter Haritz also drove successfully road races. In 1974 he became German road champion, in 1975 he finished second and in 1976 third. His appearances at the UCI Road World Championships , however, were less successful: in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1979 he was eliminated.

Miscellaneous

In 1972 Hartiz was awarded the silver bay leaf . In 1973 he was voted Team of the Year with the foursome . 1980 Haritz resigned from active cycling. Today he runs a bicycle shop in Leimen. He is an honorary citizen of his place of residence.

successes

Championships

1970

• Amateur World Champion - Team Pursuit (with Peter Vonhof , Hans Lutz and Ernst Claußmeyer )
• German amateur champion - Omnium

1971

• Amateur World Championship - Team Pursuit (with Udo Hempel , Peter Vonhof and Jürgen Colombo )

1972

• Olympic Champion - Team Pursuit (with Jürgen Colombo , Udo Hempel and Günther Schumacher )
• German amateur champion - Omnium, two-man team driving (with Rainer Erdmann )

1973

• Amateur World Champion - Team Pursuit (with Günther Schumacher , Peter Vonhof and Hans Lutz )

1974

• German champion - road race

1975

• European Champion - Derny Race

1976

• European champion - two-man team driving (with René Pijnen )

Six days race

1975

• Frankfurt (with René Pijnen )
• London (with René Pijnen )
• Munich (with René Pijnen )
• Münster (with René Pijnen )
• Zurich (with Patrick Sercu )

1976

• Berlin (with Dietrich Thurau )
• Bremen (with René Pijnen )
• Frankfurt (with Dietrich Thurau )
• Münster (with René Pijnen )
• Grenoble (with Bernard Thévenet )

1977

• Cologne (with René Pijnen )

literature

• Arnim Töpel: Günther Haritz: From the life of a cyclist obsessed . Talking Blues, 2017, ISBN 978-3-9817294-5-0 .

Teams

• 1975-1977 TI-Raleigh
• 1978 Ijsboerke
• 1979–1980 condor

Web links

• Günter Haritz in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Günter Haritz in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Günter Haritz in the ProCyclingStats.com database
• Website of Radsport Haritz

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Roger de Maertelaere: Mannen van de night , Eeklo 2000. S. 215th
2. ↑ ^{a b} The European championships before the founding of the “ European Cycling Union ” (UEC) in 1995 are considered unofficial, since up to this point they were usually invitation races in which teams of mixed nations could take part.
3. ↑ René Jacobs et al. a. (Ed.): Velo . Brussels 1984, p. 226-227 .
4. ↑ Sports report of the federal government of September 29, 1973 to the Bundestag - printed matter 7/1040 - page 69
5. ^ List of honorary citizens of Leimen