"We're leaving here with a stage win but of course we want more" - Mads Pedersen determined at the Tour de Luxembourg 2024

Mads Pedersen powered to the stage victory on stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de Luxembourg ahead of Mathieu van der Poel, turning an otherwise disappointing day for Lidl-Trek, into one that ended on a high note.

"I don't know if I was lucky. I think I just have a pretty good team. But it was definitely a very hard final," reflected the Dane in his post-stage interview immediately following his victorious sprint. "On the climb with 5 to 4 kilometres to go, when Uno-X made the race really hard, I had Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier to set a really hard pace. Then we were able to close the gap again, and nobody wanted to attack anymore. On the way down it was just full throttle, and Quinn Simmons and Alex Kirsch did a perfect lead-out."

In fact, Kirsch, a man riding on home roads in Luxembourg, did much more than just help out in the finale for his team leader. "Every day he says, for example, that a road is very narrow so we have to be at the front. That is very important to know, but in general he has been very important to me over the whole season," Pedersen says glowingly of his teammate. "A finale like this is not the same without him."

As mentioned though, it wasn't a day of complete success for Lidl-Trek as their general classification hopeful, Mattias Skjelmose crashed hard and ended up abandoning as a result. "The plan was to go for the GC with Skjelmose, but we lost him today," Pedersen reflects, choosing to remain optimistic about those Lidl-Trek riders still battling on. "At least we're leaving here with a stage win, so that's okay. Of course we want more. Tomorrow doesn't suit me very well, but it should suit Quinn. He's also in very good shape, so we'll try to bring him to something nice tomorrow."