"I was nearly dropped on the Kemmelberg. The strongest rider won today" - Classy Mathieu van der Poel full of praise for victorious Mads Pedersen after Gent Wevelgem

Monday, 25 March 2024 at 09:56

Despite his best efforts, Mathieu van der Poel couldn't quite follow up his E3 Saxo Classic victory on Friday with success at Gent Wevelgem this Sunday. The world champion narrowly missed out on victory in the final sprint to Mads Pedersen.

Afterwards however, there was no bad taste in the mouth of van der Poel. Instead, the Dutch superstar was full of praise for the eventual winner, sending Pedersen a classy message of congratulations in his post-race interview. “I really suffered a lot today. I was nearly dropped on the Kemmelberg. The strongest rider won today," assessed van der Poel honestly.

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Whilst van der Poel and Pedersen were clear up ahead, there wasn't much separating the duo from the peloton in which, van der Poel's teammate, Jasper Philipsen was laying in wait, giving Alpecin-Deceuninck a tactical conundrum to consider.

“You have to make a decision at some point. As world champion you also want to ride in that situation, and Jasper doesn't win the sprint either,” van der Poel explains. “So that's always easy to say. I had to ride there and give it a try.”

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4 Comments

MidnightRider 25 March 2024 at 20:39+ 743

Mads was the strongest, no doubt. MVDP tried one of his stinging attacks when they got to the hill section, but Mads quickly covered it and from then on it was the Trek show. They positioned themselves perfectly to support Mads, and Milan in particular deserves a gold star for staying clear as long as he did to keep the pressure on MVDP. It takes a lot to beat him, even on an A- day by his standards. But Trek had the best rider and the best team, and got a great win.

abstractengineer 25 March 2024 at 13:09+ 3150

When WVA is not there, he cannot put his best performance😂😂😂

Mistermaumau 25 March 2024 at 14:28+ 3572

I’m sure there’s truth to that and it’s not only WVA, the best bring out the best in you (besides, they’ve all more or less said they’re happy about having the others around to drive them). Never saw a good tennis player playing at their level against a lousy opponent either.

santiagobenites 25 March 2024 at 04:47+ 1757

I'm sure that Fridays effort put a bit of a dent into Mathieu's legs, but today he was beaten fairly by a better rider in Mads Pedersen.

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"I was nearly dropped on the Kemmelberg. The strongest rider won today" - Classy Mathieu van der Poel full of praise for victorious Mads Pedersen after Gent Wevelgem

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