"Hesitating a bit too long" cost victory for disappointed Mads Pedersen at Giro d'Italia

Mads Pedersen was the main favourite for stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia, a hilly day well suited to his skills. Trek looked to have made the perfect, but the hard finale and a small mistake cost the Dane a victory that would see him complete consecutive wins on all Grand Tours.

"The team did really well today. We had a plan and we did what we had to to make it reality. We had to keep the situation under control in the first part and then, on the climbs, to go hard to drop some sprinters. Jayco-Alula had the same idea, they also went hard on the climbs in favor of Matthews," Pedersen said in a post-race interview. Trek managed to bring Pedersen back in the descent as the peloton had slowed down in terms of pace, and the final kilometers were not hard to control.

"It was definitely not easy during that part of the race, I suffered a lot on the last climb and I got dropped, but in the end thanks to the super work of my teammates, we managed quite well to come back in the first group," he continued. "From that moment on we rode very well, keeping the first positions in the downhill and taking the lead in the final kilometer. It was an amazing work from Amanuel, Toms and Bauke in a not so easy situation, with wet roads."

The American team ultimately led out Pedersen in the front into the final slight uphill ramp, but there he didn't have the legs to beat Michael Matthews. "Then, after the last turn, looking back to the sprint, I did a little mistake hesitating a bit too long when Matthews launched." He didn't reveal what the mistake was exactly, but his disappointment was clear after the finish. Nevertheless he showed good legs and will be a candidate to win other stages later in the race.