Despite being second, Mads Pedersen admits giving up on fight for green jersey: "Nobody hopes that"

Mads Pedersen has been the only sprinter except for Jasper Philipsen to take a stage win throughout this Tour de France, but despite his strong performances he says he has already given up on the fight for the points classification - although he sits second currently.

“The intermediate sprints no longer matter. Philipsen is already much too far away. Jasper will take a quiet day," Pedersen told Wielerflits this morning. Pedersen took to the start of stage 13 in second place, having overtaken Bryan Coquard last afternoon. He carries 179 points, but the Belgian who has already won four bunch sprints has 323.

With just over half of the race done and the Alps looming, the leader of Lidl-Trek will not be spending energy fighting for the jersey anymore, because of such dominance: “It will have to be bad luck that he drops out. But nobody hopes that and he is quite firmly in the green jersey."

Despite this, it does not mean Pedersen will not make the effort to chase points, likely in the sprints, however the intermediate sprints are unlikely to see the Dane going all-out. "You never know what will happen. And there is still good prize money to be earned," he concluded, with UCI points also available at the end of the race with more prominence from this year onwards.