Mads Pedersen just misses second win at Paris-Nice: "It's a pity to finish second"

Trek - Segafredo were by far the team that took the most responsibility today at Paris-Nice to try and lead to a bunch sprint. With good reason, as Mads Pedersen went on to finish second on the day, but just barely missing out on the win as late escapee Mathieu Burgaudeau ran away with a surprising victory.

"The boys did really good work today, really impressive how we planned it this morning and how it went. Everyone was committed from kilometer 0, I love to see the team working together like this. In the end, this guy [Mathieu Burgaudeau] was pretty impressive and strong, it's a pity to finish second," he said.

With the strong headwind present on the day, it became a possibility and later a reality that the stage would come down to a bunch sprint. Pedersen has been climbing really well throughout the week, and was confident he could get his second win of the race today: "We took control quite early, we've used the people when we wanted to, again this guy was really strong, we didn't have more people to do the work. We missed Markus who was sick today, with the full team I think the timing would've been perfect."

"It's a pity not to give the guys the victory we were fighting for today, that's how it is, that's racing, I think we can be proud of the team work today," he concluded. The final two stages of Paris-Nice will be quite hard and Pedersen isn't expected to be near the front. With the spring classics drawing near, Pedersen is well on his way for a successful campaign.