Mads Pedersen: "At the end it turned out to be 100 meters too early for me"

Danish Mads Pedersen remains the leader of Etoile de Bessèges tonight after a very strong start to the race, but today he just couldn't put out enough watts to raise his arms on the line.

Probably being his last opportunity to take a win at this race, Pedersen left it all out there on the road today, but after a thrilling neck-to-neck sprint with Bryan Coquard he only managed to come runner-up.

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"There was a climb about 35kms to finish where the whole peloton was going faster and faster. Filippo and Antonio ended their job there, pretty impressive how they were riding the whole day. After that Bauke [Mollema] and Tony [Gallopin] took over, really nice work to keep us out of trouble and in the front," he recalls, confirming that Trek's whole focus was on landing him a second win.

“Of course, the last 10kms were on hectic roads but Alex did a great job to keep me out of any problems and I really trust him. It’s still not easy, but riding behind him makes it a hell of a lot easier, when Alex popped it was a bit too early to go but on the other hand I didn’t want to slow down so I had to go. Not full, but almost."

"At the end it turned out to be 100 meters too early for me. Overall, very impressive work from the boys today, of course I would like to give them a victory but second place is quite nice on a finish like that. Shape is good, we are happy with another good result!”

Pedersen will depart tomorrow as the race leader but will find a challenge much bigger than today's, as the classics Bessèges loop stage will feature climbs that are longer and more fitting to the likes of Alberto Bettiol, Pierre Latour and Richard Carapaz who are standing out as the main favourites to take the overall title.