"He’s on the form of his life" - Adam Blythe raves about Mads Pedersen after stage 1 win at 2025 Giro d'Italia

Mads Pedersen stormed into the Maglia Rosa at the 2025 Giro d'Italia on stage 1 after a thunderous final sprint in Tirrana, getting the better of Wout van Aert in a photo finish at the line. Like many others, former British national champion turned TNT Sports analyst Adam Blythe was incredibly impressed by the performance of the Dane.

“This was a turnout for the book. Stage one, not necessarily in the result, but what happened within the race and how it was tackled,” began Blythe in his post-stage analysis for TNT Sports afterwards. “At the end of the day, this was a very, very small group. This was labelled as a stage that might be for the sprints. It might not be. It was anything but that, and that was down to one team pretty much,” he adds, referring to Lidl-Trek. 

“Mads Pedersen's the winner and his team demolished the race basically," says Blythe. "They used the team strategically and they used it very well. Driving the pace the first time up the climb got rid of the big names. They got rid of Olav Kooij number one, and then the second time up… they got rid of Kaden Groves as well. They just opened the race up and put the pressure on. And I think this was a sign of things to come coming into the next lap.”

And in the sprint itself, Pedersen was imperious. "There’s not a lot to dictate, not a lot to analyse about and not a lot to go through. We know he likes a long sprint and we know he likes it early," Blythe concludes. "Mads Pedersen at the minute, he’s on the form of his life. He’s had the best classics campaign of his life. He’s coming to the Giro, got his first ever leader’s jersey. The way that his team rode today, he thoroughly deserved it. With stages like this to come — not tomorrow, but the next day — it is going to be an absolute cracker. I’m looking forward to this with him in there.”