After final season’s Tour of Flanders, riders referred to as Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) an “alien” after his solo victory. Today on the E3 Saxo Classic, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) mentioned he was defeated solely by a “monster”, as he rode to a valiant second place behind the flying Dutchman.
Pedersen was the perfect of the remaining because the Belgian Cobbled racing season bought into full swing on Friday, opening up the racing first on the Taaienberg with 80km to go earlier than being the final to carry Van der Poel’s wheel earlier than he finally went away solo on the Oude Kwaremont to defend his title.
“I feel it was fairly clear on the Kwaremont, he went fairly quick from the underside and at one level, I simply could not maintain the wheel,” mentioned Pedersen.
“Then he is simply extremely good when he has the hole. He simply retains extending it. It’s unimaginable to come back again from that, so it was positively the Kwaremont the place he made the distinction and confirmed his class.”
But it was removed from a disappointment for the Dane, who confirmed nice indicators forward of his foremost 2025 season targets of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
“No, I’m truly actually pleased right now, I had good legs, and that is by far the perfect end result I’ve achieved on this race,” Pedersen mentioned post-race.
“To be crushed by a monster is OK.”
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His staff have been equally unfazed at lacking out behind solely Van der Poel, conscious that E3 on paper, fits Pedersen’s greatest qualities the least, as a rider who appears to solely get higher because the race distance goes up and the issue hardens, as it can at Gent-Wevelgem and De Ronde.
“Everything went tremendous properly till the Kwaremont, and that is like man in opposition to man, and we settle for that Mathieu was stronger,” Lidl-Trek DS Greg Rast informed Cyclingnews and Daniel Benson’s Substack.
“The longer races match Mads even higher, however man in opposition to man, it is actually troublesome at this second to beat Van der Poel. But that is the Classics, and [anything] can occur daily.”
The former Swiss rider admitted that the staff had considered ready for Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) after they have been each left behind by Van der Poel, nonetheless, Rast concluded that it would not have made a distinction to the eventual profitable margin of 1:05.
“Mathieu was the strongest, and we have been the second strongest.”
Rast additionally highlighted how an early crash gave them a attainable probability to make the distinction over the Dutchman, however famous that that was removed from the way in which they wish to defeat the Classics famous person.
“We noticed in the beginning when the crash occurred, Mathieu was not there, and Mads was not there,” mentioned Rast. “This is perhaps the one probability that he’ll miss one thing, however we do not need it to be like that, we wish to beat him on the bike.
“It was a extremely dangerous crash, and we did not wish to revenue off it, however in the long run, we have been nonetheless in a great state of affairs as a result of Jasper [Stuyven] was there with two guys. But we did not pull, so it did not change quite a bit.”
At E3 in 2024, Lidl-Trek have been proving to be one of many actual dominant forces within the Classics, with Stuyven that point ending second to Van der Poel, earlier than Pedersen beat him at Gent-Wevelgem two days later in a two-up dash.
Ahead of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, nonetheless, they too have been dealt a nasty hand by the high-speed crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen, with Pedersen crashing onerous, Stuyven breaking his collarbone, and key domestique Alex Kirsch additionally being dominated out of the remaining Cobbled Classics.
In 2025, Pedersen and the remaining are wholesome and approaching high type as soon as once more. If they’ll hold issues secure within the subsequent few races, they’re hopeful of the Dane bettering additional to compete with Van der Poel.
“That the form is there,” mentioned a quietly assured Pedersen to finish his interview.
“I feel Mads is best than he was within the final years, and this already means quite a bit,” agreed Rast, “and I feel he’ll solely get higher from now.
“We have to get higher to beat Mathieu, and Mads is unbelievably motivated, and I feel he confirmed right now a extremely good race and actually nice type.”
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