Mads Pedersen hits back at Wout van Aert critics: "Completely bullsh*t and you should give him some more credit"

Mads Pedersen has been one of the headliners this spring and at Paris-Roubaix he finds another opportunity to perform. He is a contender for the victory at the French race and has discussed his possibilities, as well as commenting on his performance at the Tour of Flanders and Wout van Aert.

"For Flanders, I'm 100% happy. I did from my point of view no mistakes and I think it ended up with a nice result, so I wouldn't change anything last Sunday," Pedersen said in a press conference ahead of the race. "[Roubaix] It's a completely different race. We knew from other races, especially E3 that we saw the big three, they were just on another level when we were going uphill, and that's pure facts. At Roubaix, we don't have so many climbs, a little bit but not like Flanders."

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Pedersen played to his strengths, and his tactical decisions saw him in contention, and successfully taking a podium place. It was a very strong race, but in Roubaix his chances are higher as the climbing factor won't be present, and to create differences it will need to be with pure power - something which the Dane thrives on. "You see all the races how the teams were trying to anticipate and challenge these guys. But they are always so strong that even when we try to challenge them they're still better."

At Flanders, you saw the difference in how teams were racing. A lot of guys wanted to anticipate early. But I think if we anticipate early and be in front of it, you never know what happens. If Pogačar got a puncture or if I had 20 more seconds on the Kwaremont I could have been with Mathieu on the top. We try to grab the races in a different way and try to beat them because we know we can't beat them on pure power," Pedersen explains. "But Roubaix is a different race, where watts per kilo doesn't make such a big difference as it does in Flanders."

He starts with a strong and experienced team, including Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns. All are options, but Pedersen is the main card having finished sixth at Milano-Sanremo, fifth at the Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen, and now third in Flanders. He's been asked on Wout van Aert, one of his main rivals this Sunday, and has responded.

"The media is putting a question mark on Wout – I don't think that's fair. He's one of the best cyclists in the world and he's still performing super good. It's not easy to be a superstar like him and then everyone is looking at him and then still to race like he's doing. So I think this question mark especially the media is putting on him is completely bullshit and you should give him some more credit.

"He's one of the biggest stars cycling right now and without bad luck, he will 100% [be there]. So yeah, I expect him to ride as always and race a final like he's basically doing every race her does," he concluded.