Ebbesen, a three-time Olympic rowing champion and multiple world gold medallist, spent much of his professional rowing career standing at the top of podiums.

But the former rower had to settle with 18th position after completing the elite men’s recreational race that was staged alongside the International Cycling Union Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships in the Danish town.

It has been 10 years since Ebbesen competed professionally when he earned bronze in the men’s lightweight four at the London 2012 Olympics.

But it was clear that his competitive juices had not dwindled over time as the 50-year-old asked me to read the times of the winners of the day’s races before we settled down for the interview.

Ebbesen finished the 120-kilometres route in 5hr 11min 7sec - 22 minutes behind men’s recreation race champion Albert Withen Philipsen of Denmark, while New Zealand’s Sam Gaze stormed home in 4:16:51 to become world champion.

"I am still curious about how fast they are compared to me," Ebbesen told insidethegames.

"Maybe I could have gone with a group a little bit further ahead and been carried out.

"Maybe I drank too much as I had to get off the bike twice to go for a pee.

"This is my first race for a long time so if you have more races you will probably have more experience about those things as you tend to forget those small details.

"I think I am pretty good in terms of the average power of the race, but I could be a little bit lighter, I could have optimised the tyres a little bit better and I could have trained a little bit more on the course.

"That could have made up to 10 minutes.

"It’s not like winning, but that can still motivates me to go again."

Ebbesen made winning a habit during his long and glittering career where he was part of Denmark’s much-heralded men’s lightweight four crew that were called the "Golden Four" due to their achievements on the water.

He was an essential cog in the winning machine, capturing gold at Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 to make him Denmark’s most successful Olympic rower.

Bronzes at Sydney 2000 and London 2012, eight world medals, including six golds, and 19 World Cup victories are also in Ebbesen’s impressive collection of silverware.

Ebbesen announced his retirement at the age of 40 after finishing his fifth Olympics but he refused to retire from sport completely.

This month has seen American great Serena Williams and Swiss legend Roger Federer call time on their illustrious tennis careers, but Ebbesen is showing that life in competitive sport can continue in your 40s and beyond.

"When being so focused on rowing, I think I built up a motivation for exercising," said Ebbesen.

"I didn’t row much after I retired but I did move into other sports.

"I started doing a lot of mountain biking and triathlon.

"I rowed a little bit but I tried different endurance sports.

"I felt that I could use that endurance from rowing and still be very competitive in other sports where it is a factor."

Such is his drive to push himself to the limits, Ebbesen has enjoyed plenty of triathlon, cross triathlon and duathlon success at age-group level, notably winning the men’s over-45 category at both the XTERRA World Championship and Aquabike World Championships in 2018.

Other achievements include claiming silver medals in the over-40 class at the 2016 Powerman Long Distance Duathlon European Championships and in the over-45 division at the 2018 Cross Triathlon World Championships.

Alongside his sporting exertions, Ebbesen, a holder of a master of science in sports physiology, has been working as a motivational speaker in the workplace in a bid to promote healthy lifestyles and is a sought-after lecturer.

Ebbesen has also released two books, called "Think Like a Winner" and "Train Like a Winner".

The father-of-three turned 50 in May but is showing no signs of slowing down, revealing that he trains on average 14 hours a week.

"I think it’s very important that you try to see elite sport as a passion," said Ebbesen.

"If you think it’s a job and it’s very tough and it’s only because of the big goal, it’s harder to continue afterwards.

"Of course, the big goal is part of it, but I have always liked the process, the training and the lifestyle and I had passion about trying to get that extra speed and the curiosity of how to improve and motivate others."

Ebbesen has also been inspired by the number of sporting events that have taken place in Denmark in recent years thanks to the work of Sport Event Denmark.

Arguably the biggest of all of those was this year’s Tour de France as Denmark staged the opening three stages after securing the Grand Départ hosting rights.

"I went with some of my pals to watch the time trial, it was so well received in Denmark," said Ebbesen.

"We were allowed to ride on the time trial course the day after which was fantastic."

A sold-out crowd watched Ebbesen give a motivational talk in Haderslev last week before he took part in yesterday’s mountain bike marathon race.

"I like to challenge myself," said Ebbesen.

"I train a lot to keep in shape and still like to push limits and see if I can follow the young guys.

"I am quite happy [to finish 18th] as there were no age groups this time and I am 50 so I am competing against younger guys who are the best for their age and are training a lot.

"They are not on the national teams, but they are still very serious and some of them are very fast."

Ebbesen realises that he is likely to get slower as he gets older but when asked whether he still saw himself competing in another 10 years' time, the response was instant.

"Yes because I love training and measuring myself on times and testing myself on different routes," said Ebbesen.

"I want to optimise my performance."

You may wonder what happens to successful athletes when they leave the big stage, but Ebbesen is proof that the competitive spirit has no age limit.