{"id":198558,"date":"2025-05-14T12:48:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T12:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=198558"},"modified":"2025-05-14T12:48:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T12:48:47","slug":"mads-pedersen-the-unlikely-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/05\/14\/mads-pedersen-the-unlikely-superstar\/","title":{"rendered":"Mads Pedersen: The Unlikely Superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"

This has so far been a great year for Lidl-Trek\u2019s Mads Pedersen, and it just keeps getting better and better. The 29-year-old Dane, who won the road race world championship in 2019, has always had a solid reputation as an excellent sprinter and one-day racer, but this year he has joined the ranks of the elite and is widely regarded as one of the best cyclists in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The spotlight fell on him because of his stellar performances in the spring Classics, when he rode against Tadej Poga\u010dar, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert in six races, won one (Gent-Wevelgem) and finished on the podium in three (the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the E3 Saxo Classic). He has now won two of the first four stages of the Giro d\u2019Italia, which brings the number of his Grand Tour stage wins to eight, and leads in both the GC and the points classification.<\/p>\n

One of the world\u2019s best riders<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to the respected Dutch publication cyclinguptodate.com<\/em>, Pedersen\u2019s performances this year have pushed him into the \u2018BigSix\u2019 of world cycling, riders \u201cwho win the big 3-week races and the great classics.\u201d According to the publication<\/a>, that elite group includes Poga\u010dar, van der Poel, two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard, double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, and 2025 Giro favourite Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d \u2013 but no longer van Aert, who has been replaced in that elite group by Pedersen. As cyclinguptodate.com<\/em> concluded, \u201cMads Pedersen is, as of today, a better cyclist than Wout van Aert.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a matter of opinion, of course, as the Belgian has been struggling to recover his form after a year in which he crashed in spring and in the Vuelta, sustaining serious injuries in both incidents. What\u2019s not contentious is that Pedersen has become a superstar, though without the fanfare usually associated with that status. But, as cyclinguptodate<\/em>\u2019s article illustrates, the Dane is no longer just another team leader in the bunch. As Rouleur<\/em> put it: \u201cTake Tadej Poga\u010dar and Mathieu van der Poel out of the frame\u2026 and Pedersen is the best cyclist in the world at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

One big reason Pedersen remained out of the spotlight for years, despite his successes in Grand Tour stages and world championships, was, I believe, his down-to-earth personality. He\u2019s not flashy, so he didn\u2019t attract TV cameras, and he doesn\u2019t explode on the road. Rather, he digs, battles, persists, rarely tires and is usually there at the finish, whether it\u2019s a flat course or one like Sunday\u2019s stage 3 of the Giro, with a significant climb in it, the category 2 ascent to the Qafa e Llogaras\u00eb, or Llogorase Pass (10.5 km @ 7.5%).<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Lidl-Trek (@lidltrek)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n