Pedersen goes after Van der Poel because he has a former Alpecin rider and less bad luck: “I’m not saying he would have won, but…”

Matthieu Van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Tadej Pogacar… It’s been years since the same faces stood out in the books. Some people try to stand out from the “superstars,” though. Mads Pedersen is one of the most important ones. The Dane is changing gears and will do everything he can to reach the stars. For example, he might do altitude training, which is something he has never done before.

The leader of Lidl-Trek wants to win the Paris-Roubaix race in 2025. After his last race of the season, he set his eyes on The Hell of the North. Mattias Reck, his coach, tells Ekstra Bladet that he can join the team that can’t be beat. “Mads is on his way to get into the ‘Super League,'” the Swedish rider says of the group that includes Remco Evenepoel, Pogacar, Van der Poel, etc. “That’s our goal.” Even though Wout and Mathieu are better than us, we know that we can still beat them if we ride smart in the races, and Mads is a genius.

Pedersen is already a world winner and has won Gent-Wevelgem twice, but there is still a monument that is missing. “He is pushed to the limit. He wants to win races that are important to him. He can’t do that by himself, though. “Having a good team is very important. We now have Søren (Kragh Andersen, ed.) as well. That means our classics team is great. It’s been this high before. Lidl-Trek grabs Pedersen’s fellow countryman from Alpecin-Deceuninck, so Van der Poel loses an important spring helper.

“Roubaix was almost boring; next year will be different”

The previous world champion could have already had a good year, but the crash during practice threw everything off. Concerning the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, the coach says, “If Mads hadn’t crashed in Dwars door Vlaanderen and we still had one or two helpers, the difference wouldn’t have been so big for Van der Poel.” “Madds wouldn’t have won, but he would have come close.” Roubaix looked pretty dull right now. We’ll do things differently next year.