20 Facts About Thor Hushovd

Thor Hushovd was born on 18 January 1978 and is a Norwegian former professional road bicycle racer.

Thor Hushovd is known for sprinting and time trialing; Hushovd is a three-time Norwegian national road race champion, and was the winner of the 2010 World Road Race Championships.

Thor Hushovd was the first Norwegian to lead the Tour de France, and first Scandinavian to win the road race in cycling world road championship.

Thor Hushovd is the Scandinavian with the most stage wins in Grand Tours.

Thor Hushovd is widely considered the greatest Norwegian cyclist of all time.

Thor Hushovd was Norwegian time trial champion in 2004 and 2005 and road race champion in 2004 and 2010.

Thor Hushovd won the prologue in Strasbourg and led after the first day despite a cut arm.

Thor Hushovd continued with stitches and regained the yellow jersey after stage 2 with a third place.

Thor Hushovd won the last stage, beating Robbie McEwen in a sprint, thus making him the only person to win the first stage or prologue and the last stage of the Tour de France in the same year.

At the 2008 Tour de France, Thor Hushovd won stage 2 in a bunch finish.

Thor Hushovd took one of the team's first victories of the season by winning Stage 3 of the Tour of California.

Typically the sprinter with the most stage victories wins the points classification, though Thor Hushovd only won one stage, stage 6, while Cavendish won six.

On 9 May 2010, Thor Hushovd broke his collarbone on a training ride after colliding with a young girl.

Thor Hushovd prevailed in the sprint involving five other riders.

On 3 October 2010, Thor Hushovd won the road world championship, which started in Melbourne and finished in Geelong, Australia.

Thor Hushovd was the first Norwegian to win the rainbow jersey.

Thor Hushovd 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 and beat Boasson Hagen in the final sprint to take his second stage of the tour.

In 2012, Thor Hushovd joined BMC Racing Team on a three-year contract.

In June 2014 Thor Hushovd announced that he would retire after the 2014 UCI Road World Championships after struggling with Infectious mononucleosis since 2012.

However, after a hard crash suffered at the Tour du Poitou-Charentes, Thor Hushovd said he would not participate in the World Championships.