"We rode ourselves completely empty" - Lidl-Trek and Mads Pedersen left licking wounds on Tour first stage

Lidl-Trek were one of the hardest working teams on the opening day of the Tour de France. Mads Pedersen had a very strong day and survived the brutal weather conditions and hard pace on the climbs to have a chance at the final sprint, but it was ultimately worked that was not rewarded at the end of the day.

Pedersen was dropped with around 70 kilometers to go but had the legs and support from the American team which allowed him to close the gap to the peloton once again. As UAE Team Emirates stopped pushing the pace, he managed to survive the uphill sections and then the team got to work in the flat finale to try and reel in Romain Bardet and Frank van den Broek. In the final sprint then Pedersen, who had a small clash with Tadej Pogacar, only managed a seventh place on the day. 19 points scored on the points classification however, ahead of the 7 of Jasper Philipsen.

"I was not close. I finish somewhere in the top ten and there are two people ahead, so you don't get close to yellow," Pedersen said in a post-race interview. "We rode ourselves completely empty, but everyone did. There is only one way to experience such a chase and that is to give it everything, which we did."

Julien Bernard, Carlos Verona and Toms Skujins did a lot of work that brought the breakaway back to just 5 seconds, but the peloton did not sprint for victory. Now on stage 2 Pedersen may be active but the focus will be on Giulio Ciccone who also arrived in the peloton and will have here a very well suited day.

"A first stage is always tough, but the heat and the course made it even more difficult." Ciccone said. "A tough start, you have to drink a lot and put ice on your back. It's a matter of staying cool and, sort of, surviving".

"We tried with Mads, but in the end the final was disappointing. But that's how it goes in cycling, especially in such a first stage. In the remaining twenty stages we will continue to try".