Quick Facts
Biography
Karl-Heinz Kunde (born January 6, 1938 in Cologne) is a German former racing cyclist.
Kunde started his cycling career in 1959 as amateur. In 1962 he became professional. His biggest success was in the 1966 Tour de France, where he wore the yellow jersey for five days. This was even more special considering he received hardly any support from his team mates.
Kunde started 5 times in the Tour de France, but only finished two times, in 1964, 1965 and 1966. Because he was relatively small (1.59 m or 5 ft 3 in, and 50 kg or 110 lb), Kunde was nicknamed Bergfloh and Karl, der Kurze (Karl the short). The French reporters named him Le petit Kunde, and his concurrent Jacques Anquetil named him Mikrobe. Kunde was also a Cyclo-cross-cyclist. In 1973 Kunde ended his cycling career, and started a bicycle shop in Köln.
Palmarès
- 1960
- Winner 4th stage Tour of Austria
- 1961
- German national road race champion
- 1963
- 3rd stage Tour de Luxembourg
- 1964
- Tour de France: 16th place final classification
- 1965
- Tour de France: 11th place
- 1966
- Tour de France: 9th place
Teams
- 1962 TORPÉDO, AFRICOLA and BERTIN
- 1963 PEUGEOT-BP
- 1964 WIEL'S-GROENE LEEUW and RUBERG
- 1965 WIEL'S-GROENE LEEUW
- 1966-1967 PEUGEOT-BP
- 1968 BATAVUS and KELVINATOR
- 1969 BATAVUS
- 1970 BATAVUS and ELIOLONA
- 1971 BIKA-MILUBA and MÄRKI-BONANZA
- 1972 ROKADO and HOLDSWORTH
- 1973 HA-RO