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Ole Ritter
	Ole Ritter c. 1970
Personal information
Full name	Ole Jørgen Phister Ritter
Born	29 August 1941 (age 83); Slagelse, Denmark
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	74 kg (163 lb; 11 st 9 lb)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road & Track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Time trial
Professional teams
1967–1970	Germanvox–Wega
1971–1972	Dreher
1973	Bianchi–Campagnolo
1974–1977	Filotex
Major wins
	Grand Tours Giro d'Italia 3 individual stages (1967, 1969, 1971) ; One-day races and classics Gran Premio di Lugano (1970, 1974) Trofeo Matteotti (1968) ; Other Hour record 48.653 km (10 October 1968)
Medal record
Representing Denmark
World Championships

Ole Ritter (born 29 August 1941) is a former Danish racing cyclist, mainly known for breaking the hour record in 1968.^[2]

Amateur years

As an amateur he rode for ABC Denmark. His breakthrough came in 1962 where he won 2 silver medals at the world championship in Italy, Individual & 100 km team time trial. Ritter took part in the 1964 Summer Olympics. He rode the individual road race and finished in 74th place, and was part of the Danish team in the team time trial that finished seventh.^[1]

He became Danish champion twice (1962 and 1966), and Scandinavian champion once (1966)^[3] and in 1965 went to Italy to break the world record on the 100 km.^[2]

Professional years

In 1967 he became professional in Italy with the Germanvox-Wega team and his career took off. He won the individual time trial in the Giro d'Italia in front of Rudi Altig, Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil. This time trial was just short of one hour, and Anquetil remarked that Ritter would have broken the hour record.^[2]

In 1968 he went to Mexico City before the Olympic Games, to accompany the Italian amateur cyclists and help them get used to the altitude.^[2] Since time on the track was scarce, the Italian team did not want to give Ritter much track time. On the day before the Olympics started, Ritter was allowed to ride in the morning, and he beat the hour record.^[2] He was the first rider to take the record at altitude since Willie Hamilton in 1898. He covered 48.653 km and it took four years and Eddy Merckx to beat it (49.431 km in 1972).

In 1974 at the age of 33 he went to Mexico again and beat his personal record twice in a week, with 48.739 and 48.879 km.

Grand Tours

Ritter rode the Giro d'Italia nine times, and is the Danish rider with the best GC finish (seventh, in 1973) and the most stage wins (three).^[3] He rode the Tour de France just once, finishing 47th in 1975.

Other achievements

Near the end of his career, Ritter again became a Danish cycling hero when six-day racing returned to the country. He won three races: in 1974 and 1975 in Herning with Dutchman Leo Duyndam and in 1977 in Forum with Belgian six-day star Patrick Sercu. Ritter's last sixth-day race was in Copenhagen in 1978.^[3]

Films

Stars and Watercarriers (Danish: Stjernerne og vandbærerne), a 1974 film by Danish director Jørgen Leth, follows Ritter's fortunes in the 1973 Giro d'Italia. The film provides insight into a three-week stage race, dramatizing the roles and aims of different riders in the race. The heartbreak of the mountain stages, the intensity of the time trial (known as "the race of truth"), quiet moments on the road and the mundane daily signing-in are all part of the film. Ritter is featured in the time-trial segment, with his technical, physical and psychological preparations and later performance detailed to the accompaniment of a single, prolonged violin note.^[4]

A 1974 Danish documentary, The Impossible Hour (Danish: Den umulige time), explores Ritter's attempt to regain the one-hour distance record in Mexico City.^[5]

Major Road Race Results

Sources:^[3]^[6]^[7]^[8]

1967

1st Stage 16 (ITT) Giro d'Italia

3rd Giro del Lazio

3rd Milano–Vignola

9th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

9th Trofeo Baracchi (with Eddy Beugels)

10th Coppa Bernocchi

1968

1st Trofeo Matteotti

2nd Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria

2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Herman Van Springel)

3rd Milano–Vignola

8th Milano–Torino

10th Overall Giro di Sardegna

1969

1st Stage 17 Giro d'Italia

2nd Giro del Piemonte

2nd Gran Premio di Lugano (ITT)

2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Gianni Motta)

3rd Stage 15 Giro d'Italia (ITT)

4th Giro dell'Emilia

4th Grand Prix des Nations (ITT)

5th Giro della Romagna

8th Gran Premio Città di Camaiore

9th Overall Giro di Sardegna

1st Stage 5b (ITT)

1970

1st Stage 2 Paris–Nice

1st Gran Premio di Lugano (ITT)

2nd Grand Prix des Nations (ITT)

2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Leif Mortensen)

3rd Giro della Romagna

4th Trofeo Laigueglia

6th Giro di Lombardia

8th Overall Giro di Sardegna

9th Overall Giro d'Italia

2nd Stage 9 (ITT)

1971

1st Stage 20b (ITT) Giro d'Italia

2nd Stage 12 (ITT) Giro d'Italia

2nd Giro del Lazio

2nd Giro dell'Emilia

3rd Stage 4 Giro d'Italia

3rd Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria

3rd Giro della Romagna

4th Gran Premio Città di Camaiore

6th Trofeo Baracchi (with Gianni Motta)

7th Giro di Toscana

8th Gran Premio di Lugano (ITT)

9th Tour of Flanders

9th World Championships – Men's road race

9th Giro dell'Appennino

10th Overall Giro di Sardegna

1st Stage 4a (ITT)

10th Tre Valli Varesine

1972

3rd Stage 20 Giro d'Italia

3rd Gran Premio di Lugano (ITT)

4th Trofeo Baracchi (with Josef Fuchs)

8th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

8th Giro dell'Emilia

9th Paris–Roubaix

10th Giro del Piemonte

1973

4th Overall Giro di Puglia

6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

7th Overall Giro d'Italia

2nd Stages 13 & 16 (ITT)

3rd Stages 6 & 19

7th Overall Tour de Romandie

7th Milano–Torino

1974

1st Gran Premio di Lugano (ITT)

2nd Overall Giro di Puglia

1st Stage 3

4th Giro dell'Emilia

5th Trofeo Matteotti

9th Giro di Lombardia

9th Overall Vuelta a Levante

1st Stage 2

1975: 2nd Stage 18 (ITT) Tour de France; 6th Overall Giro di Puglia; 9th Gran Premio di Lugano (ITT)
1976: 4th Overall Giro di Puglia; 5th Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria; 8th Giro di Campania

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976
Giro d'Italia	DNF	49	DNF	9	24	11	7	DNF	—	DNF
Tour de France	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	47	—
Vuelta a España	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Legend
—	Did not compete
DNF	Did not finish

References

^ ^a ^b "Ole Ritter Bio, Stats and Results". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Ole Ritter – The mysterious hour record setter". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 8 February 2008. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Ole Ritter". cyclingarchives.com. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
^ Stars and Watercarriers. IMDB
^ The Impossible Hour (1974). IMDB
^ "Ole Ritter - FirstCycling.com". firstcycling.com. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
^ "Ole Ritter". procyclingstats.com. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
^ "Palmarès d'Ole Ritter (Dan)". memoire-du-cyclisme.eu. Retrieved 29 April 2018.