"That was the exact plan" - Mads Pedersen over the moon with Lidl-Trek's perfect job on opening Giro d'Italia day

Lidl-Trek began the Giro d'Italia with a plan and executed it to perfection on stage 1. Mads Pedersen won the opening stage of the Corsa Rosa and has taken on the pink jersey, result of a hard pace on the final day and perfect control over the peloton.

"This is my favourite [stage] now. To win the stage and go in the pink jersey is amazing, specially after team work like this... It's really incredible that the team works that hard and I can pay back with a win," Pedersen said in a post-race interview.

The American team could take advantage of the extensive work that Team Visma | Lease a Bike did throughout the entire stage, and then had the men to take control of the race from the penultimate descent onwards. They positioned themselves perfectly into the final climb, where Giulio Ciccone took control of the peloton.

"[The plan was] Like we did. You can see it on TV, that was the exact plan, to push really hard on the climb, make it a small group and into a sprint". The pace was high and no-one even dared to disrupt a potential sprint there, and in the final kilometers the speed was too high for anyone to escape the peloton. Hence, a sprint was inevitable.

Pedersen only had one rider who could directly battle with him in the finale, and so a luxurious leadout wasn't necessary. "You always have to be afraid of Wout [van Aert], he is a really really good bike rider and yeah it's not given to win when he is in the group. So you have to handle that with respect and a little bit of fear, but today I had the legs to finish it off for the team". 

Pedersen took the victory, albeit by a small margin, but enough to take the pink jersey and fulfill the main goal of this race. "Of course, it's the first leader's jersey I have in a Grand Tour so it's something nice". Tomorrow in the time-trial in Tirana it will be an interesting challenge to try and maintain it, which is very possible.