Mads and Amalie sprint to 3rd place podiums in their respective races
There was a Danish zest in the air Friday for Trek-Segafredo. In the sprint finish in Stage 4 at the Vuelta a Andalucia, Mads Pedersen sprinted to 3rd place. At roughly the same time, in Stage 2 at the Vuelta a Burgos, Amalie Dideriksen found her first podium result this season.
Vuelta a Andalucia
A sprint finish was imminent in the penultimate stage, and Trek-Segafredo was happy to comply with Mads Pedersen more than ready after biding his time in a hilly first four days. He was tipped as a favorite on paper, but coming off a post-Classics break and with a tricky finish on the menu for Stage 4, it did not play out as faultless as desired.
“The boys did a really good job. Niklas Conci started pulling already from the beginning, almost the whole day, and Michel (Ries) took over a did a really good job, and then the rest of the boys did the lead out,” explained Pedersen.
“Toms (Skujins) and Ryan (Mullen) they put [Kirsch and myself] in a good position with around a k to go, but we didn’t manage to yell out enough to Ryan that he had to speed up a bit, so we got a bit boxed in with 800m or 1k to go or something like this. From there on, it was about taking the chance in the last straight here between 700 and 250 meters to go, as we were really far behind, I think out of the top 10 with 500m to go.
“Alex, he made it through, but I didn’t make it through a gap, and I had to take the last left corner in the inside and lost all my speed. So I had to do a really long sprint – I almost started 10meters behind the rest of the guys.”
“We can still improve, but we can also be happy with the result today, also because we do not have the real leadout team here. I am happy with the boys; I am happy with the result even though we came for more today. So thanks to all the guys.”
Alex Kirsch’s strong lead-out had him finishing in 5th place and Toms Skujins crossed the line safely in the bunch to maintain his 5th place overall. One day remains in the five-day race and another sprint chance for the team.
Vuelta a Burgos
A solo rider from the breakaway succeeded on the second day in the Women’s WorldTour race, leaving the bunch sprinting for the minor places.
A powerful ride by Russian Anastasiia Chursina (Ale BTC) saw her take the win by over a minute while behind the peloton successfully navigated the final wet corners without incident.
Alice Barnes (Canyon SRAM) led out with a long sprint and held on to finish inches ahead of a fast-charging Amalie Dideriksen.
“Today, our tactic was to save me for a possible sprint,” said Dideriksen. “We had to cover 1150 altitude meters, so I still needed to survive the climbs.
“The final climb was pretty steep in the end, and the bunch split into several groups. I couldn’t quite follow the first ones, but the team helped get me back and also put me in a good position for the final sprint.”
“In the end, Chursina from Ale BTC was off the front, so we had to sprint for 2nd place, and I had a tight fight with Alice Barnes from Canyon SRAM.
“We had dry roads all day except the final few kilometers, so that made the final two corners a bit tricky. But I am really happy to be on the podium and grateful for the work from the team today. It was another awesome team effort.”
