In his early career Danish cyclist Kjell Rodian won both the road race and the team time trial at the 1964 Nordic Championships. Later that year Rodian was selected to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, riding in the road race. The race included the great Eddy Merckx, who tried to get away with 1.5 km to go, but only managed a gap of some 20 metres before getting caught by the pack. The two leaders for the sprint were Rodian and the Italian rider Mario Zanin, with Zanin beating the Dane by just 0.02 seconds to win gold.
Despite his surprise silver at the Olympics, Rodian initially retired from the sport just one year later. After a break of nine years, he returned to cycling, riding in three editions of the Peace Race from 1973 to 1975. At the 1974 Danish championships he won silver in the individual pursuit on the track and silver in the time trial on the road. Rodian became a professional cyclist in 1976 before retiring for good two years later.
Denmark