Brutally honest Mads Pedersen races Tour of Flanders but not for victory: " To win Flanders you have to be 100 percent and that's not me"
Cycling
Lidl-Trek had to take the toughest of blows at Dwars door Vlaanderen. Jasper Stuyven and Alex Kirsch crashed hard enough that they will lose the rest of the spring classics; Mads Pedersen did recover enough to be at the Tour of Flanders, but far from his best as he is still struggling with the effects of the crash.
"Winning the Tour or Roubaix and I have to choose? With this body I'm going 100 percent for Roubaix. Then I might have recovered a bit more," Pedersen admitted in an interview with Sporza. "Fortunately I can sleep on my back and my night's sleep is not too bad, as far as that is possible. Eight, it is what it is. After such a fall, your wounds soak into your underwear and sheets. It's a pain in the ass. You don't recover in a few days. I will have to race with a different mindset. To win Flanders you have to be 100 percent and that's not me. But on the other hand: everything is possible, even if everything has to go my way."
It was a true disaster for the American team, which lost Stuyven - second at the E3 Saxo Classic - as a card to play for a top result. "He had regained his good form. He didn't deserve to be sitting on the ground like that. Just like Wout, by the way. We will miss Jasper." Pedersen believes Roubaix suits him better and that by then he will have been able to recover a bit more, the brutality of the Tour of Flanders means that riders not arriving at their best will suffer. The Dane is one of the most consistent and reliable riders in the peloton, an absolute machine, but no-one knows what at what level he will be in this Sunday.
"It wouldn't be smart to change shoulders at this point. We are in a good rhythm and we like to race aggressively. It would be a mistake to sit back, even though I am not the man who draws up the tactics," he says of the team tactics for the upcoming race. "That's what the team management does. But I don't believe we can just watch other teams get the job done. Don't make the headline that Lidl-Trek will work, but I would be surprised if we don't use a man."
Lidl-Trek for Tour of Flanders:
Mads Pedersen, Tim Declercq, Daan Hoole, Jonathan Milan, Toms Skujins, Otto Vergaerde and Edward Theuns.
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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- How is radio going to help when someone went over a cliff or bridge or off the roadside into a forest unnoticed and is laying there unconscious?Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Yep, next we’ll be accusing F1 drivers of avoiding Le Mans.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- But on what is that opinion based? Are you holding him to a different standard than others? Are you saying he should do learn to like something he doesn’t Are you saying he hasn’t achieved enough Are you saying he pretends to be better than his results? It’s actually a really strange opinion to oust if you consider it objectively or rationally. Try applying it to others or yourself by asking if not EVERYONE should then be doing more? Nobody in athletics or swimming gets criticism for not expanding their repertoire when a rival or someone else does. In fact, most who move to another event get accused of running from their rival. Opinions are boring, the reasons behind them are what count.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- for a medical chief to throw things like is just bad. There are already radios which were banned for spectacle. allow radios. Gps trackers are not a complete solutionabstractengineer07-11-2026
- Yeah man...PogiSloFans07-11-2026
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- My memories of Ivan Basso aren't good but I liked his sister Elisa ok.flyer07-11-2026
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