The city of Horsens, which is currently hosting the first leg of the Giro D’Italia, has been in shock since yesterday when it was announced that its mayor, chairman of Local Government Denmark and a former minister of six portfolios, Jan Trøjborg, collapsed while on a cycle ride outside the city.

Tributes from across the political spectrum have been flowing in for Trøjborg, 56, who was a prominent Social Democrat.

”Jan was a strong and solid figure among Social Democrats for several decades. As an MP, as a minister and as mayor. In posts such as defence minister, minister for industry, minister for trade and minister for transport he stamped a competent and lasting mark on the governments of the 1990s,” said Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

“His personal and political integrity gave him great respect,” she said.

“I have always seen him as one of the most gifted of his generation of Social Democrats. He was in all my governments and the minister who took most jobs. He shouldered each of these jobs conscientiously, reliably and with insight,” says former Social Democratic Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.

Trøjborg collapsed while on a cycle ride with other local personalities in connection with the Giro D’Italia’s first stage which he was instrumental in bringing to Horsens and which starts today.

While cycling up a hill, he fell off his bicycle. Attempts to revive him by co-cyclists and medical personnel were unsuccessful.

“I was cycling just behind Jan, and he suddenly stopped pedalling and fell off his bicycle and into a ditch,” said Eva Kjær Hansen (Lib).

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