Rainer Podlesch (born 4 November 1944) is a retired German cyclist who was active between 1966 and 1983.

He won a silver medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in the 4000 m team pursuit.

In this event he competed for the West Germany team in the preliminaries, but was replaced in the final due to injury.

At the next Olympics he took part in the 100 km team time trial and finished in 20th place.

[2] His son Carsten Podlesch was also a prominent rider in motor-paced racing and won two world titles and his brother Karsten Podlesch competed in motor-paced racing as a pacer.