"It was pretty stupid, and I hope he doesn’t do it again" - Mads Pedersen's key domestique relieved 55km solo paid off at Gent Wevelgem 2025

Mads Pedersen put in a performance that even the likes of Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel would have been proud of on Sunday afternoon at Gent Wevelgem 2025. The Dane spent more than 55 kilometres solo en route to his record-equalling third career-win at the iconic Belgian classic.

One of the riders that played a key role in setting Pedersen up for his win, was the former world champion's Lidl-Trek domestique, Toms Skujins. Speaking post-race though, the 33-year-old Latvian didn't seem overly happy with his team leader's tactics of attacking so early. "It was pretty stupid, and I hope he doesn’t do it again," explained a relieved Skujins in conversation with Feltet.dk afterwards.

"I’ve raced the event two out of the three times he has won it. So that’s pretty cool. It’s always a tough race. We started riding hard after 80 kilometres. It was a fast and tough day. But Mads is a beast, so it might have been easy for him," Skujins continued his assessment, giving a little detail into the Lidl-Trek tactics once Pedersen had flown the nest. "We knew that De Moeren would be crucial, and we had already used one of our guys, but we were still four or five men in the front group, so that was really good. It meant we were always one step ahead, which is important in this race. So, when you have someone like Mads, who just rides away from everyone, it’s pretty easy to cover everything from behind."