Dag Erik Pedersen

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.

Major results

1977 National Junior Road Championships

1979 1st Overall Ringerike GP 2nd Overall Tour de Berlin 1980 2nd Overall Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt 1981 1st Overall GP Tell 1st Overall Ringerike GP 1st Stage 9 Milk Race 1982 1st Giro del Lazio 5th Giro dell'Emilia 5th GP Industria & Artigianato 7th Coppa Agostoni 8th Overall Ruota d'Oro 1983 2nd Giro del Veneto 3rd Giro dell'Emilia 3rd Overall Tour of the Americas 4th Overall Tour de Romandie 8th Overall Tour of Sweden 1984 1st Overall Tour of Norway 1st Stage 4 2nd Giro di Campania 6th Milan–San Remo 7th Overall Giro del Trentino 10th Overall Giro d'Italia 1st Stages 9 & 16 10th Paris–Tours 1986 1st Stage 15 Giro d'Italia 2nd Giro dell'Emilia 3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège 3rd Overall Giro di Puglia 3rd GP Industria & Artigianato 4th Giro dell'Etna 6th Trofeo Pantalica 7th Tre Valli Varesine 7th Züri-Metzgete 8th Overall Circuit Cycliste Sarthe 8th Giro del Trentino 10th Paris–Tours 10th Giro di Campania 10th Nice–Alassio 1987 4th Grand Prix Cerami 9th Milan–San Remo 9th Overall Tour de Romandie 1989 1st Overall Tour of Norway 1st Stages 1 & 5 2nd Milano–Torino 5th Brabantse Pijl 1990 1st Overall Ringerike GP 1st Stage 5 2nd Overall Tour of Norway 1st Stages 4, 5 & 6 1991 1st Overall Tour of Norway 1st Stages 2 & 5 2nd Overall Tour of Sweden 1st Stages 3 & 6 1992

3rd Overall Tour of Norway

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish