Günter Haritz

Günter Haritz
	Günter Haritz during the 1976 Six Days of Munich
Personal information
Born	16 October 1948 (age 76); Heidelberg, Allied-occupied Germany
Professional teams
1973--1974	Rokado
1975--1977	TI-Raleigh
1978	IJsboerke-Gios
1979	Kondor
1980	Rauler-Gipiemme
1981	Citizen-La Hutte
Medal record
Men's cycling
Representing West Germany
Olympic Games

Günter Haritz (born 16 October 1948) 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 Udo Hempel. In 1973, together with Peter Vonhof, Hans Lutz and Günther Schumacher, Haritz won the amateur world title in the team pursuit.^[1]

Subsequently, he was a professional cyclist from 1973 to 1982, winning the national championship on the road in 1974^[2] 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, 2 with Dietrich Thurau (both of whom his then team-mates with TI–Raleigh), 1 with Patrick Sercu the 1975 Six Days of Zürich and 1, in Grenoble, with the Frenchman Bernard Thévenet.

In the 1976 Grenoble Six, track specialist Haritz and 'road cyclist' Thévenet, who then had won the 1975 Tour de France and the 1975 and 1976 editions of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, claimed the victory against famous road cyclist Francesco Moser, who, like Thévenet, was coupled with an (eminent) track specialist, Pijnen (2nd), as well as beating the equally famous road rider Felice Gimondi who was also with coupled an eminent track specialist, Patrick Sercu (3rd), and notably then road champion Joop Zoetemelk (10th) and future five times Tour de France winner Bernard 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 in Zürich, notably beating the Australians Danny Clark and Donald Allan (2nd) and Sercu and Klaus Bugdahl (3rd). In 1977 in Copenhagen with Wilfried Peffgen, he took the bronze medal in the European championship Madison that was won by the Belgian couple Patrick Sercu, Eddy Merckx.

In the 1976 Vuelta a España, Haritz tested positive for doping,^[3] and left the race after the B-test also was positive.^[4]

References

^ "Günter Haritz Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
^ "National Championship, Road, Elite, Germany". Cycling Archives. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
^ "Thurau: etappetriomf, Haritz: dopinggebruik" [Thurau: stage victory, Haritz: used doping.]. Nieuwsblad van het Noorden (in Dutch). Delpher. 7 May 1976. p. 25. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
^ "Haritz stapt eruit" [Haritz quits.]. De Waarheid (in Dutch). Delpher. 10 May 1976. p. 4. Retrieved 18 April 2017.