Gregor Braun
Gregory Brown ( born December 31, 1955 in Neustadt on the Wine Route ) was a successful German racing cyclist in the 1970s and 1980s. " The bear of the Wine Road " in 1976 twice in Montreal Olympic champion in the one and in the team pursuit.
As the main active in track cycling driver Gregor Brown was one of the typical for his generation West German top amateurs who stood out by their services from the mediocre level. Just under a year younger than Dietrich Thurau, he already met in his youth and junior time often on these and delivered himself - especially in the pursuit race - exciting duels with Didi. Since the famous Kilian - four (also gold quad) of the 1960s to the 1980s, made for outstanding performance, were both "The Bear " and Thurau important pillars in this team ( besides Udo Hempel, Hans Lutz, Günther Schumacher Peter Vonhof ).
After Thurau but still in 1975 after the World Cup victory of the quad rail on became a professional, Gregory Brown was in the following years a central figure in both the one - as in the Team Pursuit. In his typical stylistic flawless driving, he dominated the individual pursuit and was also in the team of key performers at the Olympic Games in 1976.
After the games came in 1977 Gregor Brown in the professional camp over and won in 1978, the one-day races Around the Henninger Tower. In 1980 he won the Tour of Germany and was doing even second in the mountains classification. At the Giro d' Italia 1981 Brown took over after the second leg from Bibione to Ferrara about 211 km the pink jersey and handed it over to the next day his Famcucine teammate and captain Francesco Moser. In 1982, he took the only time part in the Tour de France, but had to retire prematurely after the eighth stage. A stage victory succeeded in 1983 in the Giro d' Italia.
In 1989 he retired from active cycling. In the 1990s, he worked both as a coach and as a hotelier. Today he lives in the northern Black Forest in Altensteig and operates in Bad Wildbad, together with Heinz Betz a cycling service company.