"That makes the victory even sweeter" - Mads Pedersen controls the competition and takes first La Vuelta win

Mads Pedersen didn't enter the Vuelta a Espana as intended, missing out on stage wins in the bunch sprints but even in the hilly days. Although the Lidl-Trek had a firm hold of the points classification, he was yet to raise his arms in glory at this Vuelta, until today. Lidl-Trek had a clear plan and everyone knew of it, but none of the almost 50 breakaway riders could stop the Dane from putting on another masterful performance.

“That makes the victory even sweeter. The team did a fantastic job. We had five riders in the breakaway. After the two riders broke away on the second climb, they made up a lot of time. They worked hard to make this possible. It's even better to win when everyone is watching us and knows our plan," Pedersen said in a post-race interview. The day started off with a 16-kilometer long climb, a proper one, and Pedersen was right away active, making it into the front groups. He was joined by Giulio Ciccone, Julien Bernard, Carlos Verona and Amanuel Ghebregzabhier. With Jay Vine and Louis Vervaeke forming the 'fuga de la fuga', whose advantage reached almost 3 minutes, it became a true worry for the American team who had to forget the dozens of riders in the group, and instead commit to burning it's men to bring it back to a sprint.

Although in the final climb of the day, Egan Bernal triggered some attacks and a very strong group was formed. But Pedersen could follow the strongest men on the day. “I had to follow everyone; I had no choice". With the front duo still yet to catch, the entire group had to commit to working together to have a chance at victory, which worked in his favour. But in the final 6 kilometers he was alone against a pack of sharks looking for any moment in which they could take advantage of a distraction. But all of the attacks were promptly covered by the sprinter, who then also had one of his rivals put in the final dig.

"I had to keep the pace high. Frigo attacked with 700 or 800 meters to go. That was perfect, because he did a kind of lead-out," Pedersen explained, although it was only a perfect scenario because he had such good legs and could comfortably follow. "I slowly closed the gap. After the bend, there were still 220 meters left, and then I had to sprint,”