Mads Pedersen of Lidl\u2013Trek had a solid spring, but he missed out on the Monument win he was chasing. A third at Paris\u2013Roubaix, a second at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, and a good showing at E3 Saxo Classic closed out a strong campaign \u2014 but could it have been better?<\/p>\n
Granted, he did take a big solo win at Gent\u2013Wevelgem \u2014 despite some of his teammates criticizing him for it.<\/a> In 2024, he also won that race \u2014 beating none other than Mathieu van der Poel. This year, he decided to switch it up, it seems. In 2025, He ended up soloing 50km for the dub<\/a>.<\/p>\n Leadership questions inside Lidl\u2013Trek<\/p>\n Former Danish pro Brian Holm said it doesn\u2019t seem like his Lidl\u2013Trek team has his back.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy can\u2019t Lidl\u2013Trek just say that Mads Pedersen is the team leader?\u201d he said on the \u201cCaf\u00e9 Eddy\u201d podcast<\/a>.\u00a0 During the Classics, the team said they\u2019d ride for Pedersen as well as Jonathan Milan and Jasper Stuyven. \u201cThey say, \u2018We\u2019re riding with three leaders.\u2019 I find that very, very strange.\u201d<\/p>\n Tour snub adds to the frustration<\/p>\n This is Pedersen\u2019s final year under contract, and he wasn\u2019t listed in the initial Tour de France roster. Granted, that may change given his strong results, but it must certainly feel strange for the former world champion to be passed over.<\/p>\n Roubaix heartbreak<\/p>\n Pedersen looked strong at Roubaix until a puncture took him out of contention. After the race, he was clearly frustrated, feeling he had the form to take on van der Poel.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bitter pill to swallow. We don\u2019t know how it would have turned out. It\u2019s just a shame that a puncture had to decide it. But that\u2019s how it goes sometimes \u2014 you have to take the bitter with the sweet. Still, it\u2019s more proof that it\u2019s been a more than successful Classics season. I just really hoped I could finish it off with a win. But it wasn\u2019t to be this year,\u201d he said to Danish outlet TV2.<\/a><\/p>\n He did say that finishing third in a Monument is a good result. \u201cI\u2019m happy with that. But I\u2019ve done that now. It would\u2019ve been great to actually ride for the win. Like I said, though, there\u2019s not much we can do about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Is it time for Pedersen to move on?<\/p>\n Holm thinks that between the leadership-sharing notion, as well as being left off the Tour team, it\u2019s a sign for him to bounce.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, if I were his agent, I would tell him that I think it\u2019s time to switch teams. He absolutely belongs in the Tour de France, for sure. And I don\u2019t know the full story, but I am quite sure he cannot be happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n At the 2024 edition, Pedersen was forced to abandon before Stage 8 after a bad crash a few days earlier. Before his DNS, he had a fourth and a seventh. It\u2019s clear that Milan has big things ahead of him \u2014 he\u2019s quickly becoming one of the great sprinters in the peloton \u2014 but Pedersen\u2019s track record deserves more respect, according to Holm.<\/p>\n M\u00f8rk\u00f8v agrees: Pedersen deserves more<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just the former T-Mobile rider saying it \u2014 former leadout man extraordinaire and track star, now national team coach, Michael M\u00f8rk\u00f8v, agrees.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a mystery at this point what\u2019s going on there. With the performances he\u2019s delivered and the way he\u2019s been riding, I can\u2019t see how he isn\u2019t the sole leader of that team. But it seems like the team they have now, and maybe the directeurs sportifs\u2019 approach, could be too non-confrontational and diplomatic.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n Pedersen has been with the team for eight years and has racked up some big wins \u2014 including the world road championships in 2019, two Tour de France stages and three at the Vuelta. He\u2019s 29 now, but he definitely has a few more years left where he can take some other big wins.<\/p>\n The only question now is whether he\u2019ll be chasing those wins in Lidl\u2013Trek colours \u2014 or somewhere new.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mads Pedersen of Lidl\u2013Trek had a solid spring, but he missed out on the Monument win he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,20358,20359,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-35155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-lidl-trek","10":"tag-mads-pedersen","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114369407525920305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}