Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek): “Mathieu was on a different league today”

April 7 ^th 2024 - 18:21

To be honest, I’m really happy. Mathieu [Van der Poel] was on a different league today. The way he was racing was impressive. When he attacked, we all were riding flat out not to allow him any gap, yet we couldn’t close in. At one point he was still gaining time and the race for second started. In the final, we were still riding all out and then [Jasper] Philipsen had a go in Gruson. [Stefan] Küng got dropped and from then on Jasper wanted to pull as well. Yet he is very strong and had been sitting on the wheel for a while. Defeating him on a sprint is already a tough ask for me, so losing the second place was not going to be a disappointment. I assumed I was sprinting for 3rd, and knew Nils could beat me on a sprint, so I was happy to secure the podium place at the finish.

In the Tour of Flanders, I raced with my head in my own ass. Today I tried to play it better, yet Mathieu was impressive and I couldn’t follow his winning move. Can I beat him on a Monument? I don’t know yet. I have zero excuses today. I was definitely at my 100% and was defeated by better boys today.

I’m pretty sure having Jonathan Milan around would have changed things a lot. It would have been very nice to have yet another teammate with me. It was pretty bad for us that he crashed out, and I hope he is okay.

We are going to celebrate this nice Classic season with the team tonight, and tomorrow I will go home to my wife. I haven’t seen her a lot since January. It’s time to rest.