"What he’s doing is f*cking incredible" - Mattias Skjelmose showers praise onto Mads Pedersen

Mattias Skjelmose and Mads Pedersen are two of the brightest stars in the Lidl-Trek team currently. After securing a 4th place finish in the general classification, Skjelmose was full of praise for his teammate.

"Whatever the team pays Mads Pedersen, I think he deserves it. What he’s doing is f*cking incredible," laughs Skjelmose in his review of the former world champion's performances at Paris-Nice. Although Pedersen couldn't quite take a stage, finishing second twice, Skjelmose believes the work done to help his GC fight cannot go unmentioned. "He’s doing the work of 10 guys and without him, I would for sure not have been fourth.”

For a moment things looked like they could have finished even better for Skjelmose as he eyed a podium position. Sadly that couldn't quite come to fruition. “Of course I would have loved to stay on the podium, but that’s how it is. I think I made a mistake by not going extra deep when Remco went the last time on Côte de Peille," he reflects. "But that’s how it is sometimes and I only learn from this."

“I think I could have gone with them because afterwards we kept them at the same pace for quite long. I think I would just have to have gone really deep a couple of times just to stay there but I was pretty confident I could have stayed there, but I didn’t do this and thought I would pace myself back. Unfortunately I didn’t which I think made the end result," he continues.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic for the Dane. “I had a really good winter, I took a huge step recovery-wise and I recovered super well between all the stages here and that’s a really important process in developing as a grand tour rider," he concludes. "I think if I can keep like this and continue to improve I think we will have a really nice Vuelta ahead."