Thorvald Ellegaard (7 March 1877 - 27 April 1954) was a leading Danish

track racing Track racing is a form of motorcycle racing where teams or individuals race opponents around an unpaved oval track. There are differing variants, with each variant racing on a different surface type. The most common variant is Speedway which ha ...

cyclist Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

in the 1900s and 1910s. He won the world professional sprint title six times, three European titles, and 24 Danish titles. He also won the

Grand Prix de Paris The Grand Prix de Paris is a Group 1 flat horse race in France open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Longchamp over a distance of 2,400 metres (about 1½ miles), and i ...

in 1901 and 1911. Over the course of his long career, which spanned 31 years, he competed in 1,560 significant races, winning 925 of them. He was Denmark's first sports idol.

Biography

Thorvald Kristian Kristensen was born on 7 March 1877 in Fangel, a village 12 km south-west of

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

on the Danish island of

Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...

. He had his debut on 23 May 1895 in Slagelse. Like his brother, Peter, he changed his name to Ellegård after the farm where they were born. He completed a mason's apprenticeship in 1896. In 1898 he became professional as the first Danish racing cyclist from the provinces. By 1899, the international community had become aware of his talent and started speculating that he could become the next big star. In 1901 he won both the world championship in sprint and the prestigious Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris. Over the following decade, Ellegård remained the world's leading racing cyclist. From 1912 Ellegård took up permanent residence with his family in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

so that his daughter, France Ellegård, could complete her training as a pianist. He participated in his last race on 26 September 1926 at the age of 49. He died on 27 April 1954 and is interred at Søllerød cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellegaard, Thorvald 1877 births 1954 deaths Danish male cyclists UCI Track Cycling World Champions (men) People from Odense Municipality Danish track cyclists Sportspeople from the Region of Southern Denmark

Biography

See also

References