RIP Rudi Altig

[KJMUNC]

Man this year has been tough on legends......probably not as well known as his contemporaries, he had a pretty incredible palmares in a golden age of competing against the greats.

Road world champion, multi-time track world champ, won 18 stages across all three grand tours, wore the maillot jaune in 4x Tours, won the freaking Vuelta in '62 as well as San Remo in '68 and Flanders in '64, not to mention being multi-time German national champ.

Competed against Anquetil, Poulidor, Simpson, Merckx.....the list goes on.

Dude was a stud.....he will be missed.

[paredown]

Cancer sucks... It sounds like he was still putting 2-3000 kilometers a year until recently...

Love this shot--captioned
"Some real horsepower in the photo (1966 or '67). From left, Tom Simpson, Jacques Anquetil, Altig and Eddy Merckx"

[parallelfish]

Teamed with the great Jacques Anquetil for the 1962 Trofeo Baracchi two-man time trial, Anquetil blew so badly that Altig pushed Anquetil for 15km. And they still won. "Jacques wasn't happy and it didn't please him. But I wanted us to win. So I grabbed his saddle, I grabbed him by the shorts, and hop!"

[tv_vt]

Guys were seriously strong back then. Growing in Chicago, lots of ex-Euros around riding the tracks. Not any hills to embarrass them. These guys could've been boxers. Altig in that first photo looks like he could rip the frame to pieces in a sprint.

[bikingshearer]

Rudi Altig was quite muscular for a roadman. That made him a very strong competitor in the one-day races, not so much in longer stage races.

He was also very much into yoga during his career, long before it was cool, and thus was surprising limber. There are some pretty fun photos of him in yoga poses that are very surprising for someone as muscled as he was.

[FlashUNC]

He and Tave Schur defined an era of German cycling, though sadly separated by a wall.

None tougher than ol Rudi.