From Scandinavian viking mythology, Thor was the thunder God. With the hammer blow, he created the lightening flash. Thor, pronounced “tour” like the race has twice brought lightening to the Tour de France. In 2001, his first participation, he was one of the strongest members of the winning Crédit Agricole team in the team time trial. In 2002, three weeks after nearly abandoning under the spotlight of tv cameras suffering with cramps, he returned with his full explosive strength to defeat Christophe Mengin by millimeters with only two days to go.

But Thor is indistructable. Sprinter, rouleur, able to time trial, despite his large physique he can also hold his own with the best climbers as he demonstrated as an Under 23 in the Ronde de l’Isard and in the 2002 Tour de France, coming 5th in the gruelling alpine stage to Cluses.

Thor was inspired to take up cycling by his older brother Ronny, three years his elder. He started racing at the age of 9. As youth, he won nearly every race he started, hailing from Grimstad, a small paradise on the south coast of Norway. Also from the same town is Norway’s only other stage winner so far in the Tour de France: Dag-Otto Lauritzen. Their area is surrounded by the breath taking Norwegian fjords, bathed in sun light in the summer months and coated in a blanket of snow during wintertime. This is when Thor the hunter returns home to his quiet natural habitat. Skiing of course was his first sport – football coming second.

Winning was perhaps too easy to Thor and at the age of 19 he considered leaving cycling. Ready to start a different life, he was on holiday at the Canary Islands when his friend Kurt-Asle Arvesen became the Under 23 road race world champion in San Sebastian in October 1997. This made Thor realise “a Norwegian could do it”. With the rainbow jersey in mind, he found the right motivation for the next 1998 season taking victories in Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Tours and the world time trial championship in Valkenburg, Holland.

Aged 20, he could have turned pro. “I had some offers, I turned them down to complete my studies and military service”, he recalled. One year and 22 wins later, he accepted a contract with Crédit Agricole. Since then he has continued to win against the most experienced professionals (see biography).

Thor isn’t just a good cyclist – one of the best of his generation, capable of winning Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders in the future – he’s also a young, charming and polite man. He’s a real God of modern cycling. Thanks to his strength, lightening will strike again!