Victor Hopkins was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to a single mother who gave him up for adoption when he was a one-year-old. The Hopkins family adopted him, but both parents died before he was nine, and Hopkins grew up living in the Davenport (Iowa) Children’s Orphan Home. There, while delivering papers on his bicycle, he was discovered as a cyclist by one of the top riders in Iowa. After competing in the 1924 Olympics, Hopkins signed a contract as a six-day racer in the United States with John Chapman, who controlled professional cycling in the US in the 1920s. In 1926 he won the US Pro Championship despite missing many of the races after breaking his collarbone. He raced in Europe in 1928 and from 1931-33. After his return to the States he continued to compete in six-days in 1933 and 1934 and then retired.
United States