Dane pulls off a 68km exhibition attack to win in Vejle
With two stage wins already achieved and the leaders jersey on the back of Mads Pedersen, all eyes were on Lidl-Trek to control the 227km Queen Stage of the Tour of Denmark. After the early break was established, so began a long day for Martin Pedersen and Ryan Gibbons, who between them rode on the front of the peloton for over 100km.
After some probing attacks and a regrouping, Albert Philipsen began to drive the pace on the front, with four Lidl-Trek riders lined up behind. As the young Dane emptied the tank and pulled aside, Pedersen launched his big move. The former World Champion went clear with Blume Levy, combining well until they caught the breakaway. Behind, teams in the peloton struggled to put together a cohesive chase, and any attempts to jump across were nullified by Pedersen’s teammates.
Pedersen reached the tiring peloton, adding some strength to the group but eventually dropping all but Würtz Schmidt as they worked towards the final circuit in Vejle. On the first ascent of Kiddesvej to the finish Pedersen dropped his compatriot, leaving him with a solo time trial to the line over the final 30km.
In the end, Pedersen finished 31 seconds ahead of second place. He heads into the final stage leading the race by 58 seconds.
A victory like this can't be done without the Team.
In Mads’ words
“A victory like this can’t be done without the Team,” said Mads Pedersen. “Even when you’re gone alone, it’s super important to have teammates behind, you know, being present all the time and showing that we are a unit and to take out the joy of trying from the other teams, so it’s super important to have a super committed team all the way through and the boys were just amazing today. They were there every time someone tried from behind so, yeah, what a team effort, all the way from pulling from kilometer zero to the finish line. Wow.
“Ryan and Martin had a tough day. We knew that no other team wanted to help us so, they had to control this big and strong break and they did really well, and then Albert, he was setting it up. He told us he wasn’t feeling great, but, you know, with a bit of pressure and, you know, if you have to fill in a specific and important role, sometimes even if you don’t feel good, you find something extra and he definitely did today. Impressive by the young gun and then still, you know, Söderqvist, Skjelly and Søren in the back there all the time, this is one big team victory.
“The moment I went was spontaneous, I would say. I’m not a big calculator, you know, and sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn’t but, in this given moment, I had William Blume from Uno-X with me and he was in GC, so he was willing to work as well. The moment we caught up with the break, then Mats Würtz was there, you know, still also in a good position in GC, so he was willing to work as well. Actually, every time we caught up with someone, they were willing to race and work also, so in the end, it was quite ideal to move up.
“The last three laps on the circuit were horrible and really hard. I was digging really, really deep, so that was just everything I had.
“It’s super, it’s lovely to be back home in Denmark and do these races, and especially here on this course, you know, this is like the Danish World Championships so thanks to everyone who came out to support us today.”
