The book "Masters and Slaves of the Road" has a great picture of Altig in
the years when he was a possible GC contender in major stage races, doing
yoga in his room after a stage; a cyclist/yoga teacher friend of mine ranks
this as one of his favorite racer shots. Another thing, I think from the
same book, Anquetil was slightly paranoid about Altig's talent and ambition
in either Vuelta or Tour one year, begged Helyett to build Rudi a dog of a
bike to
hold him back!
David Feldman
Vancouver, WA
> Rudi Altig was a German pro cyclist, rode the tour, I believe. Of of
> many German promising stars who didn't live up to expectation -
> Gregor Braun and, significantly more successful, Jan Ulrich come to
> mind, too. The only Rudi Altig bike venture involved a manufacturer
> near where I grew up south of Bonn, Schauff. This was in the around
> 1980.
>
> Schauff mostly were making low quality department store bikes, and
> the Altig bikes were among them. These bikes were ubiquitous in the
> region, thanks to a discounted factory sale program. Yet, they were
> the butt of many jokes for their low quality. Discerning kids rode
> Peugeot ten-speeds and dreamt of the PX-10 hanging in the window of
> the local sewing machine and bike mechanic! (Yes, it's true, in
> Germany until recently, if you wanted to train as a bike mechanic,
> you'd have to learn to fix sewing machines, too! Tradition...)
>
> Schauff also had a pro shop where some nice racers were built by
> hand, but under the Schauff, not the Altig name. The son of the
> company's owner - named Schauff - was a friend of mine in middle
> school. He had one or two of the pro bikes. Spoilt kid!
>
> Altig lived in the area and was good friends with the Schauffs. He
> also had some Adidas sponsorship deal that may have involved shoes
> with his name.
>
> I do not know of other Altig bikes, but like Merckx, whose name
> started out on department store bikes, he may have done different
> things later.
>
> Jan Heine, Seattle