"Ciccone and I believe we can help each other" – Mads Pedersen confident split ambitions won't hinder Lidl-Trek at La Vuelta 2025

Lidl-Trek will head into the 2025 Vuelta a Espana with a dual-leadership strategy, confident that chasing both general classification and stage success won’t lead to internal conflict. Mads Pedersen, one of the team’s headline riders, says he and Giulio Ciccone are fully aligned in their goals — and more importantly, in their willingness to support one another.

The Danish former world champion is no stranger to multi-objective missions. He and Ciccone attempted a similar approach at the Giro d’Italia earlier this year, with Pedersen walking away with four stage wins and the Maglia Ciclamino, while Ciccone looked strong in GC until a crash forced him out while sitting seventh overall.

Now, both return to Grand Tour racing with the belief that Lidl-Trek’s two-pronged plan is not just viable, but advantageous. “Ciccone and I believe we can help each other,” Pedersen said in quotes collected by Feltet.dk ahead of the upcoming Vuelta a Espana. “Obviously, if we didn’t believe we could achieve our goals together, the team would’ve made a different call.”

The Vuelta's often unpredictable terrain — where pure sprinters are rare and breakaways thrive — makes it an ideal battleground for a rider of Pedersen’s versatility. While the Danish powerhouse has his sights set on stage wins and a possible tilt at the points jersey, Ciccone will once again be targeting the general classification.

What makes this partnership tick, according to Pedersen, is a sense of mutual understanding and professionalism rarely seen when leadership is shared. “On this team, we know how to manage having two priorities,” Pedersen explained. “We can share the workload, share the pressure, and share the results. We showed that at the Giro. We were on the right path with this plan — until Ciccone had to abandon. We believe we can do it again here. Otherwise, one of us would’ve stayed at home.”

That spirit of cooperation could even see Pedersen playing a domestique role on the mountain stages, while Ciccone offers support on terrain better suited to the Dane’s sprint and classics-style power. “If my climbing legs are there, I’ll help Giulio on the big mountain days. And in return, he can help me on the stages that suit me,” Pedersen said. “It’s like we saw on Stage 1 of the Giro, when I rode into the pink jersey — it only works when there’s mutual support.”

At the heart of Lidl-Trek’s approach lies something rare in a sport often driven by individual ambition: genuine mutual respect. “The fact that we respect each other, and that we both want to deliver big results, makes it possible to go into the race with two equally important goals,” Pedersen said. “It’s not about sacrificing one rider’s ambitions for another’s — we’re working towards something together.”

Whether the Vuelta script will allow both to flourish remains to be seen, but Pedersen is adamant that the team’s strength lies in its unity. After a season that’s already included major wins and hard-learned lessons, Lidl-Trek arrives in Spain with two leaders — and one shared mission.