Mads Pedersen wins time trial in Tour of Denmark

Last year’s overall winner Mads Pedersen, riding for the Danish National Team, won the stage four time trial in the PostNord Danmark Rundt (Tour of Denmark) Saturday, redemption for a rocky second stage where he finished three minutes behind winner World Cyclocross champion Wout Van Aert (Vérandas Willems-Crelan), eliminating him from the GC battle.

“About the GC, I made a mistake in the Vejl stage and lost three minutes, and that’s almost impossible to catch up in the Tour of Denmark,” explained Pedersen. “So I was just having the focus on stages, especially the TT today and getting a good result here since the GC was gone. To give the team and the National coach a victory here is super nice and I am super happy for them.”

Pedersen won the 19-kilometer time trial in a time of 21:52 (52.409 Km/h), eight seconds faster than Van Aert.  Pedersen, who came into the race to try and defend last year’s victory was instead left frustrated after losing significant time in stage two, and with it the chance at successive wins in his home country’s race.

“I can’t complain about the result today, and I had some anger to get out after screwing up in the second stage,” added Pedersen. “I just wanted to do a good result today for the National Team to show I can still do the short time trials. It was a big effort today, and it went really well, and I am super happy about that.”