Historic Overview Dag Erik Pedersen
Rider
Overall Rank | 981 |
Name | Dag Erik PEDERSEN |
Country | Norway |
Date of birth | 06-Jun-1959 - Skien (Telemark) |
Date of death | 03-Jun-2024 - Helgeroa (Vestfold) |
Biography
Dag Erik Pedersen (6 June 1959 – 3 June 2024) was a Norwegian road racing cyclist with a long career as professional. He won 3 stages in the Giro d'Italia and he came 4th in the Road race in the 1981 World Championship. He was a member of Birkenes IL, previously for Larvik SK and Grenland SK before he turned professional after the Worlds in September 1981.
Pedersen won a total of 43 professional races in his 12 years in Italy and the Netherlands. He won the Norwegian National Road Race Championship in 1992.
After he retired as a cyclist he began working for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation where until his death he worked as an anchor. He won best news and sports anchor in Norway in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2008. He spoke fluent English, German, Italian, French, Dutch and basic Spanish.
Pedersen also worked with film director Nils Gaup on several occasions. Best known are "When Dylan came to Langesund" and "Deadline Torp". In 2000, he made a TV documentary about King Harald of Norway. He also made TV portraits of famous people like Sir Paul McCartney, Andrea Bocelli, B. B. King, Michael Persbrandt, Rod Stewart, Kronprins Haakon of Norway, Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú and Bernard Kouchner. In the early 1980s he had a career as a pop singer issuing two singles and the album Gatelangs.
He spent 24 days in prison in 1994 for speeding.
In an interview with Norwegian media VG/NRK, Pedersen did not rule out that he might have been drugged when, in the 1980s, he got injections whose content he did not know.
Already in 2008, Pedersen was saying that injections with unknown content were a part of the normal daily routines as a bicycle professional. Pedersen tested positive for ephedrine at the 1981 Milk Race (Tour of Britain) and got a one-month suspension.
Pedersen died in Helgeroa on 3 June 2024, at the age of 64.