ANALYSIS | Mads Pedersen kicks Wout van Aert out of the 'Big 6' of cycling

The Giro d'Italia seems to have confirmed the 'overtake' that had been brewing in recent weeks. Wout van Aert's performance has been steadily dropping and today we can safely say that he does not belong to the famous 'Big 6' of world cycling, those who win the big 3-week races and the great classics.

He is not at the level of Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic. He isn't. In fact, it's hard to give a name that is, but the season Mads Pedersen is having makes him worthy of getting close to that position and, in any case, overtaking him as a cyclist at the moment better than Wout.

And speaking only of this particular season, Van Aert has not won yet this year and Pedersen has already accumulated 6 victories. The Dane has only been worse than the Belgian at Dwars door Vlaanderen, where Visma was beaten by Neilsson Powless. 

Van Aert failed to win in his debut in the Algarve and then in the classics season he has had several podium finishes, although he missed out on the podium in both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix - in both he was fourth.

Pedersen, meanwhile, was second in Flanders, winning the sprint over Van der Poel and Wout himself, and third in Roubaix despite a puncture at a key moment. Before that he had just won the Gent-Wevelgem and in the beginning of the season he added stage and overall in the Tour de la Provence and stage in Paris-Nice - where he also performed spectacularly in the mountains.

The definitive has arrived at the Giro d'Italia. The fight between the two was expected for the pink jersey on the opening stage, but it wasn't to be for the Visma rider. The Belgian tried, but once again he couldn't hold off Pedersen in the sprint. In the third stage he couldn't hold on in the climb and saw from far away the second victory of the Lidl-Trek rider. He was sick before the race. Yes, but he wasn't sick during the classics and he was inferior. The overtaking is clear: Mads Pedersen is, as of today, a better cyclist than Wout van Aert.