Lothar Claesges

Lothar Claesges (born July 3, 1942 in Krefeld ) is a former German cyclist .

Lothar Claesges, who drove for the RC Staubwolke Krefeld club , achieved great success as an amateur in team pursuit on the track . In 1962 he became world champion in this discipline on the Vigorelli track in Milan , together with Ehrenfried Rudolph , Bernd Rohr and Klaus May ; the following year, the German team with Claesges was runner-up in Rocourt . In 1964, the German team again won the title in the combination of Karl Link , Karl-Heinz Henrichs and Ernst Streng .

At the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo , the German track four - also known as the gold four - won the gold medal from coach Gustav Kilian with Claesges, Link, Henrichs and Streng. In the summer of 1961, when he and Klemens Großimlinghaus won the championship in two-man team driving, they were both the most successful team in German track cycling with eight wins and six podium places.

On February 29, 1964, he and Bernd Rohr received the Silver Laurel Leaf for his sporting success .

Then Claesges went to the professionals (he started for Ruberg ) to start mainly in six-day races, but remained unsuccessful. He won two road races and ended his sporting career in 1966.

Web links

• Lothar Claesges in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Lothar Claesges in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cycling: Cycling . Ed .: Association of German Cyclists. No. 7/1962 . German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne, p. 14 .
2. ↑ Sports report of the federal government of September 29, 1973 to the Bundestag - printed matter 7/1040 - page 69
3. ↑ Be a professional, however . In: Die Zeit , No. 9/1965.