Per Christiansson

Per Christiansson had a promising start to his cycling career with back-to-back team time trial titles as a junior at Sweden’s national road championships in 1978 and 1979, and an individual time trial title in 1979. Christiansson then followed his time trial victories with individual wins at the Skandisloppet road race in Uppsala in 1980 and 1981. The following year he finished in second place in the road race at the Swedish national championships.

Christiansson’s breakthrough year was 1983 where he recorded consistent performances in stage races across Europe. He had three top-three finishes in stages at the Tour de Normandie and the Tour of Sweden, finishing in third place overall at the latter, and a second place at the opening stage of the Tour of Norway. The following year Christiansson had two top-three finishes at the Tour of Sweden before being selected to ride at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. At the Los Angeles Games he finished in fifth place in the 100km team time trial along with 14th place in the road race.

At the 1985 national road race championships Christiansson finished in first place, ahead of Peter Jonsson and Lars Wahlqvist. Christiansson was also victorious at the Championship of the Nordic Countries road race in Trondheim. Christiansson’s final year riding as a professional cyclist was 1986. He finished in third place on the opening stage of the Tour of Sweden before going on to win stage 4 of the race. He also rode for Atala at the 1986 edition of the Giro d’Italia.