Reader story · 1983
Kund Rindbøl’s time trial on the old main road
Thirty kilometres, one rider at a time and a main road still open to ordinary traffic. Two private photographs preserve a Danish time trial as it looked from the verge.
His mother is waiting at the top of Elverdam hill. A lorry is coming the other way, spectators stand by the road, and the rider has his head down in the wind.
Towards the turn
The date in the rider’s notes is 17 September 1983. The event is described as DBC’s 30-kilometre individual time trial on the old main road between Holbæk and Roskilde. The first photograph was taken on the outward leg at Elverdam.
There are no closed roads or crowd barriers. The white edge line is the rider’s narrow workplace. Cars and a lorry use the same road, while his mother stands on the cycle path with an encouraging call ready.
A minute between riders
The account says that all classes started in one combined prize field, much as they had in the earlier Fagerhult Sprinterderby at Undløse. More than one hundred riders took part, sent away individually.
He started as number two. That meant there were few backs to aim for. On the return from the turn, he caught the Gladsaxe rider who had started one minute ahead. After that, he recalls, the final fifteen kilometres offered no one else to chase.
54 × 14 on Elverdam hill
In the second photograph he is riding home with the wind behind him and working a 54 × 14 gear. The small detail tells almost as much as the result: a large chainring, a small sprocket and a position held against the clock on an ordinary Danish road.
According to his later recollection, he finished fifteenth, 2 minutes 53 seconds behind winner Jesper Skibby. He remembered being 21 and 18 seconds behind John Helleskov and Klaus Møller in the two places immediately ahead. Those figures come from the rider’s own account; an official result sheet has not yet been located.
What remains
A local time trial rarely leaves a large archive. Here, two photographs and a few precise memories do the work: the date, the gearing, the minute to the rider in front and the autumn colours above the road.
They also show a form of racing that belonged closely to everyday traffic. The course was not a separate arena. It was the main road, borrowed for half an hour at a time.
Sources
- The rider’s later recollections and two private photographs.
- Lex: Jesper Skibby
The date, course and result details are presented as the rider remembered them.
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