Günter Haritz

Who is Günter Haritz?

Günter Haritz 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.

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 addtionally 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 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 track specialist, Pijnen, as well as beating the equally famous road rider Felice Gimondi who was also with coupled an eminent track specialist, Patrick Sercu, and notably then road champion Joop Zoetemelk and future five times Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault.