"I was not affected a lot” - Mads Pedersen powers through covid to keep Tour de France dream alive

Covid-19 continues to persist amongst the peloton, causing problems for teams and riders alike. Most notably, Sepp Kuss was recently withdrawn from Team Visma | Lease a Bike's lineup for the 2024 Tour de France at the last minute due to covid.

Lidl-Trek superstar and a stage winner at the Tour de France in each of the last two years, Mads Pedersen tested positive for covid-19 at the recent Criterium du Dauphine and has seen his team's general classification hopeful, Tao Geoghegan Hart denied a Tour de France appearance due to the infection. Thankfully for Pedersen, his symptoms were not too severe however, keeping his hopes of more success in France alive.

“The Tour is more pressure and expectation, but I am used to that now,” Pedersen says in a pre-Tour de France conversation with Velo. “The team wants me to perform, that’s what I am paid to do. The Tour is the Tour. Every year we are fighting for a stage win or more.”

“It hits some people hard and some people it doesn’t, I was not affected a lot,” Pedersen continues, refusing to get too down about any potential illness or setback. “I had a few days off the bike, and I needed to rest anyway, and even riding with it was not a problem for me, I was lucky and hopefully I don’t get anything during the Tour.”

As such, Pedersen is full of confidence about his potential for more Tour de France stage wins. “The speed is still there. We definitely won’t want to be better at climbing and take away the sprint. On the climbing days, it’s easier to get some points on the harder days for the green jersey," he assures. “The weight is super good. We saw at the Dauphine the climbing was going well. I trained a bit more in the mountains, with a lot of sprinting and motor pacing.”