"Mathieu van der Poel was just leagues better than the rest of us today" - Mads Pedersen typically honest post-Paris Roubaix

Although he was unable to replicate his victory at Gent Wevelgem last month, Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen managed to secure himself a spot on the podium at Paris-Roubaix 2024.

"Mathieu van der Poel was just leagues better than the rest of us today," Pedersen admits in his post-race interview having come home alongside Jasper Philipsen and Nils Politt in the battle for second and third, three minutes on the world champion and dominant winner on the day. "To finish on the podium is almost a win."

Whilst Pedersen was always at the front throughout, just before the key moment of van der Poel's race-winning attack 60km out, the Dane had suffered an untimely puncture coming from the Arenberg Forest sector of cobbles.

"Of course a puncture is annoying in this race so I had to spend a few bullets to come back but on the other hand, if you look at the whole race, the puncture came at a good moment," he assesses. "We managed to come back, Vacek was there to close the gap so yeah, shit happens. It's almost impossible not to have a puncture in this race so I'm happy that I made it back and could get on the podium."

"I had to spend my teammates chasing and they did an incredible job," the Lidl-Trek leader concludes. "Other teams had numbers and it was a bit difficult to cover everything but in the end, I think I managed okay."