Alex Pedersen

Alex Kjeld Pedersen (born November 15, 1966 in Ikast ) is a former Danish cyclist and road cycling world champion of amateurs.

Career

As a teenager, Pedersen joined the Herning Cycling Club , which was trained by Preben Riis and developed into the talent factory of Danish cycling. The club's son, Bjarne Riis , who later won the 1996 Tour de France , also belonged to the club .

At the age of 17, Alex Pedersen won the overall ranking of the Giro della Lunigiana junior stage race in 1983 . In the same year he was in Wanganui with Rolf Sørensen , Søren Lilholt and Kim Olsen Junior World Champion in the team time trial . In 1984 he took third place in the junior road championship in Beuvron-en-Auge . In 1984 he won the Dusika Tour stage race , the most important stage race for juniors in Austria .

He then started in the amateur class . In 1986 Pedersen was the Danish road racing champion for amateurs, and the following year he was third in the world championship for amateurs.

From 1988 to 1991 he was a professional , initially with the French cycling team RMO . Due to falls and at the Vuelta a España 1989 occurring cardiac arrhythmias , from which he suffered from youth, he could not achieve any success. Due to this health restriction, his commitment by the Dutch team TVM failed . After a successful cardioversion , the Spanish ONCE team led by team manager Manolo Saiz signed him on the recommendation of Johnny Weltz . Pedersen was third in the Danish championship in the individual time trial in 1990 and seventh in the overall ranking of the Ruta del Sol and was set up by his team for the Giro d'Italia in 1990 . In 1991 Tirreno-Adriatico's heart problems reappeared, whereupon Pedersen ended his professional career and enrolled at a business school.

After another successful cardioversion, Pedersen started again as an amateur in 1992 and was again Danish road racing champion. In 1993 he finished business school, started working for a packaging company in Holstebro , where he was released from cycling for a year. After he was first Scandinavian champion in 1994, he won the world championship title for amateurs in the road race in Palermo in the sprint of a top group of five. He then ended his career as an active cyclist.

Alex Pedersen was active as a triathlete after his active time in cycling. In 2001 he finished 13th at the world championship on the long distance and in 2004 he won the Austria Triathlon .

Activities in sport

In 1998, Alex Pedersen was one of the co-founders of the Home-Jack & Jones cycling team , which was founded by his hometown club, Herning Cycling Club , and which later became the Saxo Bank team . In this team he was also the sporting director until 2003 , then with the team Designa Køkken-Blue Water . He was also involved in the local handball club Ikast-Bording Elite Håndbold .

He was also committed to ensuring that the Giro d'Italia started in his hometown of Herning in 2012 .

Professional and social engagement

In 2005 Alex Pedersen became editor-in-chief of the weekly Ugeavisen Herning and in 2007 moved to Vejle County Folkeblad . As a member of the Conservative People's Party, he is also politically active and campaigns for tougher penalties for doping .

Web links

• Alex Pedersen in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Profile and results of Alex Pedersen in the ITU database at Triathlon.org , accessed on July 25, 2018 (English).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Herbie Sykes: Das gelobte Land, in: Procycling, German edition, November 2014, p. 64ff
2. ↑ Velo . No. 10/1994 . Velomedien AG, Zurich, p. 18 .
3. ↑ Alex Pedersen
4. ↑ business.dk of October 23, 2009: Chef udenpå - cykelrytter indeni
5. ↑ berlingske.dk of October 1, 2007: Verdensmester i cykling vil gøre K fræk