Mads takes his first ever Giro podium in a close sprint

On the third day of the Corsa Rosa, Mads Pedersen sprinted to second. “I feel sorry I couldn’t give the win to repay the strong effort of my teammates.”

In the first real chance that the Giro d’Italia offered him, Mads Pedersen came very close to success. On the finish line in Melfi, the third stage of the Corsa Rosa, the Trek-Segafredo captain placed second in the sprint with Matthews (Jayco-Alula), the winner, and Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), in third.

I really appreciated how the Team raced for me today. We have a very nice team spirit, we rode full gas for our goal and I feel sorry I couldn’t give the win to repay the strong effort they did. Of course that was the first chance for us, we’ll keep fighting and hopefully we’ll hit the big target on the next one.

Pedersen’s regret is related, above all, to the great performance of the team in making the race and supporting him in an exemplary manner in the most critical moments, especially in the finale.

After the generous work of Otto Vergaerde in the first part of the race, pulling the peloton and keeping the breakaway under control, the race got to the heart approaching the 3rd and 4th category KOMs. A brutal selection, initiated by Tesfatsion and Ghebreigzabhier significantly reduced the group and dropped many sprinters. On the last kick, Mads also paid the price for the effort, but then managed to come back thanks to the work of his teammates.

At the end, the sprint.

Mads Reaction

The team did really well today. We had a plan and we did what we had to to make it reality. We had to keep the situation under control in the first part and then, on the climbs, to go hard to drop some sprinters. Jayco-Alula had the same idea, they also went hard on the climbs in favor of Matthews.

It was definitely not easy during that part of the race, I suffered a lot on the last climb and I got dropped, but in the end thanks to the super work of my teammates, we managed quite well to come back in the first group. From that moment on we rode very well, keeping the first positions in the downhill and taking the lead in the final kilometer. It was an amazing work from Amanuel, Toms and Bauke in a not so easy situation, with wet roads. Then, after the last turn, looking back to the sprint, I did a little mistake hesitating a bit too long when Matthews launched.

Giro d'Italia 2023 - 106th Edition - 3rd stage stage Vasto - Melfi 213 km - 08/05/2023 - Toms Skujins (LAT - Trek - Segafredo) - Michael Matthews (AUS - Team Jayco AlUla) - Massimo Fulgenzi/SprintCyclingAgency©2023

Giro d'Italia 2023 - 106th Edition - 3rd stage stage Vasto - Melfi 213 km - 08/05/2023 - Michael Matthews (AUS - Team Jayco AlUla) - Mads Pedersen (DEN - Trek - Segafredo) - Kaden Groves (AUS - Alpecin - Deceuninck) - Vincenzo Albanese (ITA - EOLO - Kometa) - photo Ilario Biondi/SprintCyclingAgency©2023