"The main goal is winning a stage": Mads Pedersen sets humble objective for himself at the 2026 Tour de France

The 2026 Tour de France nomination of Lidl-Trek is the embodiment of the team's ambition for near future. Whilst main focus is on a positive GC impression with either Juan Ayuso or Mattias Skjelmose, Mads Pedersen will likewise have to carry out an important mission.

Entering the race as points-classification winner at both Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana, the Dane embarks on a quest to complete his collection of precious jerseys.

However, it won't be an easy task to accomplish in the competition of some of the world's fastest men, including Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen or Olav Kooij. Despite all his qualities, Pedersen can't realistically hope to outsprint any of them in a head-to-head power contest.

As a matter of fact, Pedersen's plot to secure the green jersey doesn't revolve around bunch sprints, but rather inclines to a more Peter Sagan-esque strategy, which mixes consistency, versatility and adaptability in order to surpass pure sprinters.

Mads had far from fluent year with multiple letdowns, including a skipped Baloise Belgium Tour, but now the feeling is good, the former world champion insists in a team preview. Despite a disappointing outcome at Danish Championships where Pedersen finished 5th in time trial and 7th in road race.

"The feeling is pretty good, especially now after Nationals. It was nice to pin the numbers again and be back racing. It's been a long time, so it's always nice to see to see how it feels when other guys are in the peloton and pushing the limits as well."

"The main goal for the Tour is winning a stage, and then we're trying to aim for the for the green jersey as well, even though new points system is not in our favor. But nothing is impossible, and we have seen other riders do it before where we didn't expect it so we offer the challenge and believe we can do it."

The mentioned points system definitely doesn't play in Mads' favour with 50 points awarded to bunch sprint winners, whilst "mixed" stages and intermediate sprints only award 30 and/or 20 points respectively. In case one of the top sprinters were to get on a winning streak, Pedersen could find himself in an unbridgable disadvantage.

Team sports director Steven de Jongh is confident Mads can deliver the expected results across next three weeks: "He will go for green and almost doesn’t need an introduction. He is so strong and competitive in the sprints and even on days when sprinters will normally get dropped he can survive."

So far in 2026, Pedersen is yet to win a race. The closest he had come to a victory was month ago at the Boucles de la Mayenne where he was beaten in a sprint of last stage by Olav Kooij, one of his opponents for the upcoming Grande Boucle.

Beyond the many setbacks, Pedersen's season is not entirely a failure thanks to a solid Classics block which saw the Dane secure a 4th place at Milano-Sanremo, 5th at Tour of Flanders and 7th at Paris-Roubaix.