Palle Lykke

Palle Lykke (1966)

Palle Lykke Jensen (born November 4, 1936 in rings , † April 19, 2013 in Belgium ) was a Danish cyclist who celebrated his greatest successes in six-day races.

Palle Lykke was one of the most successful six-day riders from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. From 1957 to 1969 he started in 121 six-day races, of which he was able to win 21, making it the most successful Dane in six-day races to date. He achieved his first victories in 1958 in Aarhus (DK) and Dortmund at the side of his regular partner Kay Werner Nielsen , with whom he won a total of 8 Six-Days. Other partners were Freddy Eugen and his father-in-law Rik Van Steenbergen , to whose daughter Fanny he was married. In 1962 he and Van Steenbergen were European champions in two-man team driving . Four times he was Danish professional champion in sprint : 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1961. In 1962 he won the European criterion in the Omnium , which was a forerunner of the later European championships.

Lykke also competed in street races, albeit with less success. As an amateur, he was a participant in the UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen in 1956 (7th place) and started the same year at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in the road race , but did not reach the finish. As a professional he won the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen and three criteria in Belgium in 1965 . In 1966 he finished third in the Gent – ​​Wevelgem race .

In 1969 he ended his career at the age of 32, after winning one last six days in 1968 in Berlin (with Freddy Eugen).

Trivia

In the mid-1960s there was no association for professional cyclists in Denmark that could issue licenses. Lykke had to apply for his license directly from the Union Cycliste International (UCI) as a so-called stateless person, which of course he was not.

literature

• Roger de Maertelaere: Mannen van de Nacht , Eeklo 2000, p. 224.

Web links

• Palle Lykke in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Palle Lykke in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituary (Danish)
2. ↑ CyclingWorld: De gamle danske 6-dageshelte lever ikke mere. In: cyclingworld.dk. June 12, 2018, accessed March 1, 2020 (Danish). 
3. ↑ This title is considered unofficial, as there was no European cycling federation and the competition was an invitation race.
4. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 8/1962 . German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne, p. 6 .
5. ↑ Cykelikonet Palle Lykke kommer til Odense on odense.dk ( Memento of the original from November 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Danish)  
6. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 38/1967 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1967, p. 8 .