Rolf Sørensen
Rolf Sørensen (born 20 April 1965) is a former Danish professional road bicycle racer. He is the most successful Danish bicycle racer ever, with 53 victories over 17 seasons. He is currently working as a cycling commentator and agent. Born in Helsinge in Denmark, Sørensen moved to Italy at the age of 17, where he has lived since. He was a client of Francesco Conconi and Luigi Cecchini. He goes under the name Il Biondo due to his blonde hair. He is married to Susanne.
.jpg.webp) Paris–Tours 1998 | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Rolf Sørensen | |||||||||||||
| Nickname | Il Biondo | |||||||||||||
| Born | 20 April 1965 Helsinge, Denmark | |||||||||||||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | |||||||||||||
| Weight | 70 kg (154 lb; 11 st 0 lb) | |||||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Road | |||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | |||||||||||||
| Professional teams | ||||||||||||||
| 1986–1987 | Fanini | |||||||||||||
| 1988–1992 | Ariostea | |||||||||||||
| 1993 | Carrera Jeans–Tassoni | |||||||||||||
| 1994–1995 | GB–MG Maglificio | |||||||||||||
| 1996–2000 | Rabobank | |||||||||||||
| 2001 | CSC–Tiscali | |||||||||||||
| 2002 | Landbouwkrediet–Colnago | |||||||||||||
| Major wins | ||||||||||||||
Grand Tours
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Medal record
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Accomplishments
Sørensen won such classic one-day races as the Tour of Flanders, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Paris–Brussels, Paris–Tours and Milano–Torino, as well as slightly smaller races like the Coppa Bernocchi (twice), and the Rund um den Henninger Turm or Grand Prix Frankfurt. He has led the UCI Road World Cup on several occasions, finishing third in 1989 and 1991 and second in 1997 after a broken foot kept him from scoring points in the last two World Cup races of the season.
Sørensen also won individual stages in the 1994 and 1996 Tour de France, and wore the yellow jersey as the leader of the race after the team time trial in 1991, won by his Italian team Ariostea. He kept it until he broke his collar bone in a fall four days later.
Rolf Sørensen participated in the Tour seven times, the last in 2001. He has also won a number of stages in other stage races, among them stage 9 of the 1995 Giro d'Italia, three stages in the Tour of the Basque Country, six stages in Tirreno–Adriatico, two in the Tour de Suisse, and two in the Tour de Romandie.
Sørensen also claimed the silver medal at the 1996 Olympics.
Doping
For many years Sørensen denied that he used performance-enhancing drugs, but more than a decade after the end of his career as a professional cyclist he admitted using EPO, and to some extent, Cortisone. He broke the news to Danish TV2 on March 18, 2013.[1]
Major results
- 1986
- 1st
Points classification Danmark Rundt - 9th Milan–San Remo
- 1987
- 1st
Overall Tirreno–Adriatico - 1st Grand Prix Pino Cerami
- 2nd Overall Danmark Rundt
- 1st
Young rider classification
- 1st
- 3rd Overall Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali
- 1988
- 1st Gran Premio Città di Camaiore
- 2nd Overall Danmark Rundt
- 1st Points classification
- 1st Young rider classification
- 1st
- 2nd Züri–Metzgete
- 2nd Rund um den Henninger Turm
- 3rd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
- 3rd Giro dell'Emilia
- 3rd Grand Prix Pino Cerami
- 8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 1989
- 1st Stage 3 (TTT) Giro d'Italia
- 1st Coppa Bernocchi
- 1st Giro dell'Etna
- 2nd Coppa Ugo Agostoni
- 3rd Gent–Wevelgem
- 4th Tour of Flanders
- 4th Züri–Metzgete
- 9th Rund um den Henninger Turm
- 1990
- 1st
Overall Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali - 1st Paris–Tours
- 1st Trofeo Laigueglia
- 2nd Coppa Bernocchi
- 6th Züri–Metzgete
- 6th Tre Valli Varesine
- 7th Milano–Torino
- 1991
- Tour de France
- 1st Stage 2 (TTT)
- Held after Stage 2-5
- 1st Stage 9 Tour de Suisse
- 2nd Milan–San Remo
- 3rd UCI Road World Cup
- 3rd Tour of Flanders
- 3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 5th Giro di Lombardia
- 1992
- 1st Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
- 1st Stage 3
- 1st Paris–Brussels
- 5th Giro di Lombardia
- 7th Rund um den Henninger Turm
- 9th Milano–Torino
- 10th Milan–San Remo
- 1993
- 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 1st Milano–Torino
- 1st Rund um den Henninger Turm
- 1st Coppa Bernocchi
- 1st Stage 7 Tirreno–Adriatico
- 1st Stage 9 Tour de Suisse
- 1st Stage 3a Three Days of De Panne
- Tour de Romandie
- 1st Stage 1, 2 & 6
- 2nd Overall Tour of the Basque Country
- 5th Milan–San Remo
- 6th La Flèche Wallonne
- 1994
- Tour de France
- 1st Stages 3 (TTT) & 14
- 1st Paris–Brussels
- 1st Trofeo Laigueglia
- 6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
- 6th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
- 1995
- 1st Stage 9 Giro d'Italia
- 2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
- 2nd Milano–Torino
- 3rd Paris–Brussels
- 4th Giro di Lombardia
- 5th Giro dell'Emilia
- 8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
- 1996
- 1st Stage 13 Tour de France
- 1st Overall Ronde van Nederland
- 1st Stage 4
- 1st Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
- 1st Stage 7 Tirreno–Adriatico
- 2nd Overall Danmark Rundt
- 2nd
Road race, Olympic Games - 3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
- 9th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 9th Paris–Brussels
- 9th De Brabantse Pijl
- 1997
- 1st Tour of Flanders
- 1st Prologue Tirreno–Adriatico
- 1st Stage 3b Three Days of De Panne
- 2nd UCI Road World Cup
- 3rd Züri–Metzgete
- 4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
- 6th Paris–Roubaix
- 8th Milan–San Remo
- 10th Amstel Gold Race
- 1998
- 1st Overall Ronde van Nederland
- 2nd Overall Danmark Rundt
- 4th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
- 1st Stage 5
- 4th Overall Three Days of De Panne
- 6th Paris–Roubaix
- 1999
- 2nd Overall Danmark Rundt
- 1st Stage 1
- 4th Overall Three Days of De Panne
- 7th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
- 2000
- 1st Overall Danmark Rundt
- 3rd De Brabantse Pijl
- 8th Milan–San Remo
- 8th Paris–Tours
- 2001
- 4th Tour of Flanders
- 10th Milan–San Remo
- 10th Paris–Roubaix
- 2002
- 6th Tour of Flanders
Monuments results timeline
| Monument | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milan–San Remo | 9 | 10 | 27 | 20 | 14 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 13 | 16 | 45 | 8 | — | 25 | 8 | 10 | — |
| Tour of Flanders | — | 65 | 34 | 4 | — | 3 | 83 | 15 | — | 22 | 9 | 1 | 20 | 16 | 14 | 4 | 6 |
| Paris–Roubaix | — | — | — | — | 53 | 51 | — | — | — | — | 6 | 6 | 15 | 41 | 10 | — | — |
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | — | — | 8 | — | 34 | 3 | 46 | 1 | — | 8 | 9 | 18 | 68 | 26 | — | — | — |
| Giro di Lombardia | — | — | — | — | 33 | 5 | 5 | — | — | 4 | — | — | 25 | 12 | — | — | — |
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
External links
- (in Danish) DCU profile
- (in Danish) Trap-Friis profile