Danish cykelikon opens Tour de Himmelfart

One of the greatest Danish cyclists of all time opens the year’s Tour de Himmelfart.

When the clock strikes 9:00, and the first riders are sent out onto the roads around Odder, it is one of the greatest Danish cyclists ever who sends the riders off. The Odder boy Niels Fredborg, is the man who starts the race.

It was on the cycle track that Niels Fredborg achieved his greatest achievements, where he is listed for a total of 27 Danish championships.

He won the world championships three times, in 1967, 1968 and 1970, all three times in his favorite discipline of the 1000 meter time trial.

Fredborg also participated in the Olympics four times, in, among others, sprint, tandem, and 1000 meter time trial. However, it was in the favorite discipline of 1000-meter time trial that Fredborg won his Olympic medals, when he won Bronze in 1976, silver in 1968 and the iconic gold medal at the Munich Games in 1972. The year he won Denmark’s only Olympic medal.

It was actually on the basis of this gold medal that the then chairman of Odder Cykel Klub, Carsten H. Pedersen, took the initiative to start a cycling club in Odder.

In 1972, Niels Fredborg received the B.T Gold Award for the year’s sports presentation, as well as Aarhus Stiftstidende’s Boye Cup, which he is the only one to have received four times. Since 1993, he has been a member of the Danish Sports Hall of Fame. An honor that only 4 cyclists can boast of. And in 2004 he received the DCU Medal of Honor.

Niels Fredborg is in the finish area on Thursday morning, and he wants to bring effects from his long and wonderful career. So come by and say hello to him, and see some of the impressive medals he has won.

Fredborg will of course also be there to hand out the leader’s jerseys after the first stage.