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Rudi Altig in 2005.

Rudi Altig

Personal information
Full name	Rudi Altig
Date of birth	March 18, 1937 (1937-03-18) (age 72)
Country	Germany
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Track and road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Professional team(s)1
1959 1960–1961 1962–1964 1965 1966–1967 1968–1969 1970–1971	Torpedo-Fichtel & Sachs Rapha-Gitane-Dunlop Saint Raphael Margnat-Paloma Molteni Salvarani GBC-Zimba
Major wins
World champion individual pursuit (1960–1961) Vuelta a España (1962) Tour de France green jersey (1962) Ronde van Vlaanderen (1964) World Cycling Championship (1966) Milan-Sanremo (1968)
Medal record Competitor for  West Germany Road bicycle racing World Championships Silver 1965 San Sebastián Elite Men's Road Race Gold 1966 Nürburgring Elite Men's Road Race
Infobox last updated on:
April 16, 2007 1 Team names given are those prevailing at time of rider beginning association with that team.

Rudi Altig (born Mannheim, Germany, 18 March 1937) was a professional track and road racing cyclist who won the 1962 Vuelta a España and the world championship in 1966. He is now a television commentator.

Amateur career

Rudi Altig was born in an area which had produced good track riders. ^[1] He began racing in 1952, following his older brother, Willi.^[2] The brothers teamed for madisons and other two-man races, becoming the best in the country. ^[1] The British promoter, Jim Wallace, booked Altig to ride with Hans Jaroszewicz^[3] at a meeting on Herne Hill velodrome in Good Friday in 1956. He said:

What a pair they made! They just about slaughtered a top-class field of international riders, with all our best home lads. Only Michel Rousseau, later that year to become world sprint champion, was able to take a points sprint from them. That was in the first sprint, too; thereafter the German pair gained not only every sprint for points but every prime [lap prize] as well... They went on to Coventry [another meeting held over Easter] and did much the same thing, winning everything in which they rode, so classy was their performance.^[1]

Altig became national sprint champion in 1957 and 1958. Then Karly Ziegler, a coach, took over his preparation when he joined the Endspurt Mannheim club and Altig became a pursuiter. He won the 1959 national pursuit championship and won the madison championship with his brother. Later that year he beat many of the world's best pursuiters to become world champion in Amsterdam.

Professional track career

Altig was allowed by the Union Cycliste Internationale to turn professional in 1960^[2] within a year of his world championship. ^[1] He rode his first professional six-day, in Denmark, that winter. Wallace said:

No man ever settled down better or quicker to a pro career than the able Altig. In the hurly-burly world of indoor track racing. Rudi never seemed a novice. Settling down at once, tearing strips off established stars, he soon started to fill indoor tracks which had long forgotten the welcome sight of a 'house full' sign. He brought back the biggest winter racing boom to Germany for many years, reminiscent of the balmy pre-war days. With seven tracks at home - more than in the rest of Europe - Altig had a busy time and was soon in the big money.^[1]

He won the world pursuit championship in 1960 and 1962 and won 62 races on the track. He won 22 six-day races, particularly in Germany, including four in Cologne and Dortmund.^[2] He never rode the Giro di Lombardia because it clashed with the start of the winter season on the track.^[2] He said:

I rode the track because I could win money. If I hadn't been able to win money on the track, I wouldn't have travelled all the velodromes of the world to ride six-days. Now, riders are better paid and they don't need to hammer themselves on the road and the track. We, in our era, we did everything to try to win money. Modern times are different, you have to understand that. You can't compare the two eras. But I don't regret ours.^[2]

Altig, who is 1m 80 tall and weighed 80kg, sprinted on the track on 52 or 53 × 16 and rode pursuits on 52 × 15. ^[2] "He gave his bikes as hard a time as he gave his adversaries," said the writer, Olivier Dazat.^[4]

Road career

Altig started his professional career as a track rider; it was Raphaël Géminiani who persuaded him his future was on the road. Altig agreed because fame on the road would give him better contracts on the track. He won the Vuelta a España and three of its stages in 1962. He was maillot jaune for five days in his first Tour de France that same season, winning three stages and the points competition, and finishing 31st.

He won his first classic in 1964, the Ronde van Vlaanderen after riding 60 km alone and winning by four minutes. In 1965 he finished second to Englishman Tom Simpson in the professional road championship in San Sebastián, Spain. Simpson said:

I could not accept that Altig could beat me. Going round the back of the circuit we came to a gentleman's agreement. Both of us had worked hard in our little break and therefore we each deserved an equal chance of victory. We agreed to separate when we reached the one kilometre to go board and ride in side by side. Altig was quite happy about this for I am sure he thought he could put it across me. So there we were, two gentlemen virtually fighting a duel over the last kilometre. I was glad that Altig had accepted my proposal for it was the fairest way out. I have always regarded him as a great rider and his showing that day did nothing to make me change my mind.^[5]

But the world title was not denied for long: he won the 1966 championship not too far away from his home, at the Nürburgring. There was controversy because Altig had been helped by Gianni Motta, riding that day for Italy but normally Altig's companion in the Molteni team. The concern was quickly overshadowed by the refusal of the first three riders to give urine samples for a drugs check.^[6] They were protesting at what they saw was the laxity with which tests were carried out and at what they considered restrictions on the way they prepared themselves. Altig said: "We are professionals, not sportsmen."^[7] The three were disqualified and suspended but ten days later the Union Cycliste Internationale allowed the result to stand.^[6]

Altig took three stages in that year's Tour, finishing 12th place overall, and two more in the Giro d'Italia, in which he came 13th.

The second and final classic win came in the 1968 Milan-Sanremo. He also took two stages of that year's Vuelta, finishing 18th overall. In 1969 he finished 9th in the Giro, and won the prologue individual time trial of the Tour de France.

Jacques Anquetil

Altig rode his first Tour as a domestique and as team sprinter for Jacques Anquetil. The two developed a rocky relationship in the Tour of Spain that hardened when Altig took the yellow jersey early in the Tour de France.^[2] Anquetil criticised him because his team would have to ride at the front and chase every attack to protect a rider too heavy^[8] to keep his lead through the mountains. The two never became close until they rode for different teams.^[9]

That same year the two were paired for the Trofeo Barrachi, a 111 km two-man time-trial in Italy. The writer René de Latour wrote:

Generally in a race of the Barrachi type, the changes are very rapid, with stints of no more than 300 yards. Altig was at the front when I started the check - and he was still there a minute later. Something must be wrong. Altig wasn't even swinging aside to invite Anquetil through... Suddenly, on a flat road, Anquetil lost contact and a gap of three lengths appeared between the two partners. There followed one of the most sensational things I have ever seen in any form of cycle racing during my 35 years' association with the sport - something which I consider as great a physical performance as a world hour record or a classic road race win. Altig was riding at 30mph at the front - and had been doing so for 15 minutes. When Anquetil lost contact, he had to ease the pace, wait for his partner to go by, push him powerfully in the back, sprint to the front again after losing 10 yards in the process, and again settle down to a 30mph stint at the front. Altig did not this just once but dozens of times. ^[1]

Anquetil reached the stadium where the race finished and hit a pole. He was helped away with staring eyes and with blood streaming from a cut to his head. The couple nevertheless won by nine seconds. Altig said: "Jacques wasn't happy [during the race], it didn't please him at all, but I wanted us to win. So I got him by the saddle, I got him by the shorts, and hop!."^[2]

Retirement

Altig became directeur-sportif of the Puch-Wolber team when he stopped racing and worked for five years as national coach. He is now a television commentator. He said of the American rider, Lance Armstrong: "He is a tyrant who exploits his team-mates without leaving them the least initiative."^[10] Of his fellow German, Jan Ullrich, he said he would do better to talk less about what he was going to do and get on and do it.^[8]

Six-days

Altig won 22 six-days:

Road race victories

References

External links

• Complete Palmarès

Awards
Preceded by Hans-Joachim Klein	German Sportsman of the Year 1966	Succeeded by Kurt Bendlin

Tour de France points classification winners 1953 Fritz Schär • 1954 Ferdinand Kübler • 1955–1956 Stan Ockers • 1957 Jean Forestier • 1958 Jean Graczyk • 1959 André Darrigade • 1960 Jean Graczyk • 1961 André Darrigade • 1962 Rudi Altig • 1963 Rik van Looy • 1964–1965 Jan Janssen • 1966 Willy Planckaert • 1967 Jan Janssen • 1968 Franco Bitossi • 1969 Eddy Merckx • 1970 Walter Godefroot • 1971–1972 Eddy Merckx • 1973 Herman van Springel • 1974 Patrick Sercu • 1975 Rik Van Linden • 1976 Freddy Maertens • 1977 Jacques Esclassan • 1978 Freddy Maertens • 1979 Bernard Hinault • 1980 Rudy Pevenage • 1981 Freddy Maertens • 1982–1983 Sean Kelly • 1984 Frank Hoste • 1985 Sean Kelly • 1986 Eric Vanderaerden • 1987 Jean-Paul van Poppel • 1988 Eddy Planckaert • 1989 Sean Kelly • 1990 Olaf Ludwig • 1991 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov • 1992 Laurent Jalabert • 1993–1994 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov • 1995 Laurent Jalabert • 1996–2001 Erik Zabel • 2002 Robbie McEwen • 2003 Baden Cooke • 2004 Robbie McEwen • 2005 Thor Hushovd • 2006 Robbie McEwen • 2007 Tom Boonen • 2008 Óscar Freire • 2009 Thor Hushovd

Tour de France Combativity award winners 1956 Darrigade • 1957 Barone • 1958 Bahamontes • 1959 Saint • 1960 Graczyk • 1961 Team West-Southwest • 1962 Pauwels • 1963 van Looy • 1964 Anglade • 1965 Gimondi • 1966 Altig • 1967 Letort • 1968 Pingeon • 1969–1970 Merckx • 1971 Ocaña • 1972 Guimard • 1973 Ocaña • 1974–1975 Merckx • 1976 Delisle • 1977 Knetemann • 1978 Wellens • 1979 Kuiper • 1980 Levavasseur • 1981 Hinault • 1982 Clère • 1983 Demierre • 1984 Hinault • 1985 Ducrot • 1986 Hinault • 1987 Delgado • 1988 Simon • 1989 Fignon • 1990 Chozas • 1991–1992 Chiappucci • 1993 Ghirotto • 1994 Poli • 1995 Buenahora • 1996–1997 Virenque • 1998–1999 Durand • 2000 Dekker • 2001–2002 Jalabert • 2003 Vinokourov • 2004 Virenque • 2005 Pereiro • 2006 de la Fuente • 2007 Txurruka • 2008 Chavanel • 2009 Pellizotti