Thor Hushovd

Thor Hushovd

Hushovd at the 2011 Tour of California
Personal information
Full name	Thor Hushovd
Nickname	The God of Thunder The Bull from Grimstad
Born	(1978-01-18) 18 January 1978 Grimstad, Aust-Agder, Norway
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	79 kg (174 lb)
Team information
Current team	BMC Racing Team
Discipline	Road
Role	Captain
Rider type	Sprinter Classic specialist
Professional team(s)
2000–2008	Crédit Agricole
2009–2010	Cervélo TestTeam
2011	Garmin-Cervélo
2012–2014	BMC Racing Team
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France Points classification (2005, 2009) 10 individual stages,[1] 2 TTT Vuelta a España Points classification (2006) 3 individual stages Giro d'Italia 1 individual stage Single-day races and Classics World Road Race Championships (2010) Gent–Wevelgem (2006) Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (2009) National Road Race Championships (2004, 2010, 2013) National Time Trial Championships (2002, 2004, 2005) Under-23 World Time Trial Championships (1998)
Medal record Competitor for  Norway Road bicycle racing World Championships Gold 2010 Melbourne and Geelong Road race
Infobox last updated on 30 March 2014

Hushovd (in yellow) at the 2011 Tour de France. Hushovd held the overall lead of the race from the second to the ninth stage of the race.

Hushovd at the 2006 Tour de France; his win in the prologue was one of two stage wins during the race.

Thor Hushovd (born 18 January 1978) is a former Norwegian professional road bicycle racer riding for BMC Racing Team.^[2] He is known for sprinting and time trialing; Hushovd is a three-time Norwegian national road race champion (2004, 2010, 2013),^[3] and was the winner of the 2010 World Road Race Championships. He was the first Norwegian to lead the Tour de France, and first Scandinavian to win the road race in cycling world road championship. He is also the Scandinavian with the most stage wins in Grand Tours. He is widely considered the greatest Norwegian cyclist of all time. He retired in September 2014.^[4]

Career

Born in Grimstad, Aust-Agder, Norway, Hushovd won the under-23 time trial world championship and the under-23 versions of Paris–Roubaix and Paris–Tours before turning professional in 1998. He was Norwegian time trial champion in 2004 and 2005 and road race champion in 2004 and 2010. In 2006, he won seven UCI ProTour races and two stages of the Tour de France. He won the prologue in Strasbourg and led after the first day despite a cut arm. He continued with stitches and regained the yellow jersey after stage 2 with a third place. He won the last stage, beating Robbie McEwen in a sprint. In the 2006 Vuelta a España he won stage 6, wore the golden jersey for three stages and won the points classification

At the 2008 Tour de France, Hushovd won stage 2 in a bunch finish.^[5]

2009

In 2009, Hushovd rode for the Cervélo TestTeam.^[6] He took one of the team's first victories of the season by winning Stage 3 of the Tour of California. At the Tour de France, he won green jersey for the points classification for the second time, ahead of Mark Cavendish. Typically the sprinter with the most stage victories wins the points classification, though Hushovd only won one stage, stage 6, while Cavendish won six. After a controversy on stage 14, where Cavendish was relegated to the back of the peloton for impeding Hushovd, Hushovd attacked alone on stage 17, a mountain stage, winning two intermediate sprints.^[7][8] Hushovd won stage 3 at the Tour of Missouri – 114 mi (183 km) over rolling hills – in September 2009, in a sprint finish.

2010

On 9 May 2010, Hushovd broke his collarbone on a training ride after colliding with a young girl.^[9] At the Tour de France, Hushovd won the third stage, which was an unusual one for the Tour since it featured 13 km (8.1 mi) of cobblestones. He prevailed in the sprint involving five other riders.^[10] That victory netted him the Green jersey, but he ultimately lost it to Alessandro Petacchi of the Lampre-Farnese Vini team.

On 3 October 2010, Hushovd won the road world championship, which started in Melbourne and finished in Geelong, Australia. He was the first Norwegian to win the rainbow jersey.^[11][12] VeloNews said: "Hushovd...dominated a bunch sprint at the end of a thrilling 267km race, beating Denmark’s Matti Breschel and Australia’s Allan Davis." The favorite, Philippe Gilbert, was caught with three kilometers to go.^[13]

2011

During the 2011 Tour de France Hushovd claimed the Maillot Jaune and surprised many by keeping it through several hilly stages that were not expected to suit him and second placed Cadel Evans could not over turn the 1 second advantage that Hushovd held. Hushovd surprised his fans again on stage 13 by being one of the first riders over the Hors Categorie Col d'Aubisque and using his superior descending skills (he was clocked at 69 mph at one point) to catch and pass the leaders David Moncoutie and Jeremy Roy to take the stage. He used his descending skills again on stage 16 when he, Edvald Boasson Hagen and teammate Ryder Hesjedal went clear on the descent of the Col de Manse (a descent that overall runner up Andy Schleck deemed too dangerous for the tour) and beat Boasson Hagen in the final sprint to take his second stage of the tour.

2012

In 2012, Hushovd joined BMC Racing Team on a three-year contract.^[14] Suffering from a then unknown medical condition, he had to abandon the Giro d'Italia and cancelled his scheduled participation to the Tour de France and Olympic road race.^[15] The medical impairment was later identified as a "virus and muscle inflammation" by team doctors.^[16] Hushovd hardly achieved any notable result in the season except fourteenth at Paris-Roubaix. In October, he said that he hoped to put the bad year and the virus that ruined it behind him and that he was optimistic and motivated about the 2013 season.^[17]

2013

Hushovd earned his first win since the 2011 Tour of Britain with a sprint victory over Tom-Jelte Slagter of Blanco Pro Cycling on stage 1 of the Tour du Haut Var in February. It was also his first victory with BMC Racing Team.^[18]

Retirement

In June 2014 Hushovd announced that he would retire after the 2014 UCI Road World Championships after struggling with Infectious mononucleosis since 2012.^[19][20] However, after a hard crash suffered at the Tour du Poitou-Charentes, Hushovd said he would not participate in the World Championships.^[21] His last race was the GP Impanis-Van Petegem in September.^[4]

Personal life

Hushovd currently resides in Monte Carlo,^[22][23] with his wife Susanne,^[24] and their daughter Isabel (b. 2009).^[25] However, the Hushovds maintain an offseason residency in Grimstad, Aust-Agder, Norway.^[26]

Palmares

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Giro	—	—	—	—	—	—	WD	—	—	—	—	WD	—	—
Tour	WD	112	118	104	116	120	138	96	106	111	68	—	—	—
Vuelta	—	—	—	—	WD	82	—	—	—	WD	—	—	—	—

WD = Withdrew; In Progress = IP

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thor Hushovd.

• Official website
• Thor Hushovd on Twitter
• Thor Hushovd at Trap-Friis.dk. Archive copy at the Wayback Machine (archived 24 May 2011)
• Palmares at Cycling Base

UCI Road World Champions – Men's road race 1927 Binda 1928 Ronsse 1929 Ronsse 1930 Binda 1931 Guerra 1932 Binda 1933 Speicher 1934 Kaers 1935 Aerts 1936 Magne 1937 Meulenberg 1938 Kint 1946 Knecht 1947 Middelkamp 1948 Schotte 1949 Van Steenbergen 1950 Schotte 1951 Kübler 1952 Müller 1953 Coppi 1954 Bobet 1955 Ockers 1956 Van Steenbergen 1957 Van Steenbergen 1958 Baldini 1959 Darrigade 1960 Van Looy 1961 Van Looy 1962 Stablinski 1963 Beheyt 1964 Janssen 1965 Simpson 1966 Altig 1967 E. Merckx 1968 Adorni 1969 Ottenbros 1970 Monseré 1971 E. Merckx 1972 M. Basso 1973 Gimondi 1974 E. Merckx 1975 Kuiper 1976 Maertens 1977 F. Moser 1978 Knetemann 1979 Raas 1980 B. Hinault 1981 Maertens 1982 Saronni 1983 LeMond 1984 Criquielion 1985 Zoetemelk 1986 Argentin 1987 S. Roche 1988 Fondriest 1989 LeMond 1990 Dhaenens 1991 Bugno 1992 Bugno 1993 Armstrong 1994 Leblanc 1995 Olano 1996 Museeuw 1997 Brochard 1998 Camenzind 1999 Freire 2000 Vainšteins 2001 Freire 2002 Cipollini 2003 Astarloa 2004 Freire 2005 Boonen 2006 Bettini 2007 Bettini 2008 Ballan 2009 Evans 2010 Hushovd 2011 Cavendish 2012 Gilbert 2013 Costa 2014 Kwiatkowski