Thomas Lövkvist

Lövkvist during the 2008 Tour of California
Personal information
Full name	Thomas Lövkvist
Nickname	Gotland
Date of birth	April 4, 1984 (1984-04-04) (age 24)
Country	Sweden
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	70 kg (150 lb/11 st)
Team information
Current team	Team Columbia
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Allround
Professional team(s)
2004–2007 2008–	Française des Jeux Team Columbia
Major wins
Critérium International, 1 stage Sweden National road championship (2006) Sweden National time trial championship (2004)
Infobox last updated on:
December 24, 2007

Thomas Lövkvist (born April 4, 1984 in Visby, Gotland) is a Swedish professional road bicycle racer riding for the UCI ProTeam Team Columbia. He became the youngest Swedish professional road bicycle racer when he started his professional bicycling career in FDJeux.com at the age of 19 in 2004. ^[1] Lövkvist is a good time trialist and has recently improved his climbing abilities.

Career

Early years

As a junior, Lövkvist was the European mountain bike champion. Aged 19 he won the individual time trial and the overall classification of the Circuit des Ardennes. Lövkvist also finished sixth and wore the leader's jersey in the 2003 Tour de l'Avenir. Following this results he turned professional for the French team FDJeux.com in 2004.^[1]

Française des Jeux (2004–2007)

Lövkvist first professional season turned out to be a very successful one. The week after turning 20 he won the last stage Circuit de la Sarthe with a 171 km breakaway, covering 150 alone after getting rid of Christophe Moreau. The stage win also gave him the overall classification, drawing comparisons with Tour de France winners Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond, who also won the race at the age of 20.^[2] Lövkvist finished 10 seconds ahead of Franck Bouyer, who four days later earned his revenge by beating Lövkvist in the French semi-classic Paris-Camembert.^[3] Later in the season he also won the Swedish National time trial championships and participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics. In the 2004 Tour de l'Avenir he won the last stage and finished second overall on the same time of the winner, Sylvain Calzati.

Lövkvist began the 2005 season with a 12th place in the Paris-Nice. He made his debut in the Tour de France as the youngest rider at the age of 21. He also finished 4th in the Tour de Pologne and 14th in the Deutschland Tour. He was later named the Swedish Cyclist of the Year.^[4] In 2006 he became the Swedish National Road Race champion and was once again the youngest rider of Tour de France.^[4]

In 2007 he finished second in the Criterium International after winning the concluding time trial. He also competed in the Tour de France and later finished second in the 14th stage of the Vuelta a España, the best stage result for a Swede in Vuelta a España since 1982. At the age of 23 he had finished his second Grand Tour of the season and the fourth of his career. Note that Lövkvist was the UCI ProTour rider with most competition days (84) in 2007 and he only abandoned in the last stage of Paris-Nice. He was also the third rider who covered more competition kilometers in the ProTour.^[5]

Team Columbia (2008–)

Lövkvist joined the T-Mobile Team for the 2008 season, later known as Team High Road and Team Columbia. Lövkvist won the best young rider classification and finished third in the Tirreno-Adriatico. His improvement in stage races became clear after he finished fifth in the Tour de Suisse, ahead of his team leader Kim Kirchen. Lövkvist also took the white jersey from Romain Feillu in the first time trial of the 2008 Tour de France, where he finished 11th.

Palmarès

External links

• Thomas Lövkvist profile at the Cycling Website
• Palmarès at Trap-Friis.dk

References