Chris Anker Sørensen (Danish pronunciation: [ˈkʰʁis ˈɑŋkɐ ˈsɶɐ̯ˀn̩sn̩]; 5 September 1984 – 18 September 2021) was a Danish road bicycle racer who rode professionally between 2005 and 2018 for the Team Designa Køkken, Tinkoff–Saxo, Fortuneo–Vital Concept, and Riwal Platform teams. Sørensen then worked as a directeur sportif (and co-owner) for his final professional team, Riwal Readynez.
Career
Born in Hammel, Sørensen had a promising performance in the 2008 Tour of Austria, finishing fourth overall. A few weeks later, he competed for Denmark (along with Nicki Sørensen and Brian Vandborg) in the 2008 Olympic road race, finishing 12th overall.
Starting with the 2010 season, Sørensen, who lived in Luxembourg, rode under a Luxembourg license, since the UCI no longer allowed the Danish federation to grant Danish licenses to riders living abroad. During the season, he won Stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia.
In the 2012 Tour de France, Sørensen finished 14th overall and was awarded the super-combativity award after an attacking performance in several mountain stages.
In September 2015, it was announced that he would leave Tinkoff–Saxo and join Fortuneo–Vital Concept for the 2016 season, with a role to support Eduardo Sepúlveda in Grand Tours.
In February 2018, he announced his retirement at the end of the season.
Personal life
He commentated on TV 2 (Denmark) from 2017 until his death.
Death
On 18 September 2021, Sørensen was killed by injuries sustained by being struck by a van while on a bike ride in Zeebrugge, Belgium; he had been due to cover the 2021 UCI Road World Championships, which started the following day. According to a statement of the Brugge parket released on 19 September, Sørensen did not yield on a location where he needed to do so.
Major results
Grand Tour general classification results timeline
See also
- List of racing cyclists and pacemakers with a cycling-related death
References
External links
- Palmares at CyclingBase Archived 15 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in French)
- Chris Anker Sørensen at UCI
- Chris Anker Sørensen at Cycling Archives (archived)
- Chris Anker Sørensen at ProCyclingStats
- Chris Anker Sørensen at Cycling Quotient
- Chris Anker Sørensen at CycleBase
- Chris Anker Sørensen at Olympedia
