UPDATE | Multiple fractures for Mads Pedersen as he suffers spring-endangering crash at Volta a Comunitat Valenciana
CyclingThursday, 05 February 2026 at 10:48
Bad news have hit the Lidl-Trek camp. Mads Pedersen has crashed towards the end of stage 1 at the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana. This has forced him to abandon the race and might put into jeopardy his preparation towards the spring campaign, with only two months left to the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Pedersen typically begins his season at Etoile de Bessèges or in a different race in France, however after last year's safety issues, Lidl-Trek decided not to step foot in the French race. Instead, the Dane decided to race for the first time this year close to where the team trains during the winter, in the Comunitat Valenciana.
Going into stage 1, he was the main favourite to take the win, being the biggest name in the sprinter field to contest for this stage. Hence, it came as a surprise to note his absence in the peloton towards the end of the opening stage, whilst sprinters such as Biniam Girmay and Arne Marit - first and second on the day - made it through. Mathias Vacek was representing the German team, however Pedersen was nowhere to be seen.
The team has now confirmed Pedersen did not reach the finish line, after suffering a crash in a 'key point' of the stage. More updates will be provided soon, however it will force him to miss important racing and potentially take some time off the bike.
With Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar remaining healthy throughout the winter, this may further increase the gap between the two and the rest of the peloton, as over the past year Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert have all been victims of serious injuries.
Lidl-Trek's statement
"Not how anyone would want to see Mads Pedersen start his 2026 season!
A crash heading into the key point of the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana stage 1 saw Mads forced to abandon the race. We will provide another update when we know more!"
UPDATE
Lidl-Trek have shared an update on the Dane's condition in the evening of this Wednesday:
"Mads Pedersen suffered a fracture of the left wrist and right collarbone in the crash on day one at Volta Comunitat Valenciana, which will be operated on tomorrow. The team’s first priority is to ensure Mads gets the best care possible and the immediate focus will be on a successful recovery to minimise the disruption to his season goals".
"We will announce his return to racing in due course and will share any further updates only if necessary".
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- That sucks
ChillingCyclist05-02-2026 - If a bit more of cycling money was available for organisers to invest in security, it wouldn’t be so bad. Counting on volunteers is getting harder every year and it’s understandable. I have no problem sacrificing my time for amateur events where we are all equal but it’s very different making the same decision for pros when I see events depend more and more on ever less people sacrificing and suffering (try dealing with hotheaded car drivers on the road when given zero authority or tools before questioning that) while knowing it’s for an elite bunch earning more and more and who rarely show any appreciation or respect towards volunteers (understandably in the heat of racing but they would do well to think about this a bit in their time off, a tiny gesture would be all that’s needed to motivate volunteers to continue).Mistermaumau05-02-2026
- Statistics are useful but don’t tell the whole story and it would be very tedious to discuss and compare wins which are not all equal. Remco’s wins will be transferred this year but almost all of “PL”’s wins were sprints and have nothing to do with teaching a rider tactics for tours. This season the results may level out a bit. That said, CH is hit and miss (and quite a lot miss) but so tedious to follow I cannot be bothered to read all his contributions and I’ll give this one a miss, and, as I’m no hypocrite, everyone is welcome to do the same with me :-)Mistermaumau05-02-2026
- If he’s doing this EVERY round, what was happening on the parts he couldn’t see?Mistermaumau05-02-2026
- Especially since we now know he’s not a great fan of long indoor trainer sessions. Going to be real hard for him. Might make Tour stages more interesting though if he has to skip most of the spring.Mistermaumau05-02-2026
- No strong man can hold off a coordinated peloton for a long distance. The problem is convincing the peloton to work together. There's no way another team want to burn their matches just so you can jump on them when they have burned their matches closing the gap.
KerisVroom05-02-2026 - this will be fun to watchmij05-02-2026
- yeah, love the questioning of tactics. they are the current greatest grand tour team. Tadej is the greatest GT rider. there is a difference. I don’t think anyone should question TVLmij05-02-2026
- Horner is such an idiot and blowhard. and I think basic facts prove him to be very wrong. a quick google search reveals “In 2025, Soudal Quick-Step achieved 54 victories. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe secured 23 victories in 2025.” Considering PL’s team had over double the wins of Denk’s, I would argue PL knows tactics pretty well. and when it comes to competing against MVDP and Tadej, all the tactics in the world don’t matter when you are simply ridden off the wheel.mij05-02-2026
- this really sucksmij05-02-2026
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Update on Mads Pedersen's condition after his crash on stage one of Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 👉 racing.trekbikes.com/stories/lidl-t… #VCV2026
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