Pedersen: "I can still win a stage."

With a challenging climb 26 km from the finish line on stage 5 of the Vuelta a España, many expected Mads Pedersen to battle for victory in Terres de l'Ebre. Instead, the Lidl-Trek sprinter was dropped on the Alto de Paüls, leaving the field open to Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike), who took his second stage win of the race.

For Fantacycling, this is a significant wake-up call : Pedersen, winner of the points classification in last year's edition, is currently far from the pace of Tadej Pogačar , leader of the overall points classification with 82 points compared to just 20 for the Dane, who came from fourth place on stage 2. Despite this meager haul, however, the Scandinavian rider showed no regrets for having sacrificed himself in the service of his teammate Mattias Skjelmose along the 173.3km stage.

Lidl-Trek attempted to exploit a windy coastal stretch to split the peloton. While initially effective in neutralizing the day's breakaway, the attempt failed to create significant gaps, with the peloton eventually regrouping.

"The priority is to help Skjelmose," Pedersen told TV2 bluntly. "There wasn't much wind during the race, but the stage was set up as if there were, so pulling like that still requires a lot of effort. When you do a job like that and then have to cross the road, you don't have much left in your legs. All in all, it's fine: Skjelmose didn't waste any time and got through the day without any problems, so the goal is achieved."

The Alto de Paüls was only 3.5 km long, but with an average gradient of 7.1% and peaks in double digits, it was enough to drop some sprinters. Pedersen, however, had already thrown in the towel on his chances of winning the stage well before that point.

"I didn't even have time to realize how tough it was because I was already behind," he explained. "I knew it would be a tough day, and I didn't think I had much of a chance in the sprint, knowing I'd have to give it my all for Skjelmose. Maybe we didn't give the climb enough weight, which we would have done if we'd arrived with a full team ready to fight for the win."

"I know why I'm here at the Vuelta, and it's to help Mattias. This means sacrificing some of my own personal opportunities, but I'm perfectly comfortable with this choice," he added. "I might still have a stage win in my legs, and I truly believe in it, but I won't have the same support I had at the Tour. And that's fine, it makes me happy to be able to do this for Mattias: my personal goal is obviously to see him on the podium."

Lidl-Trek teamed up with Visma-Lease a Bike in a powerful switch, causing two significant splits in the peloton, with green jersey holder Ethan Hayter (Soudal-Quickstep) momentarily on the wrong side of a climb. While no big names were ultimately left out, Skjelmose agreed with the strategy adopted to always stay on the right side of any potential gaps.

"It's better to make the effort to make sure that doesn't happen, rather than save your energy and find yourself at the back of the pack. No one wants to be left out."

"We obviously wanted the splits to work, but we quickly realized they wouldn't lead to anything concrete. So Mads just took me to the windward side a couple of times, without too much fuss. For me, it was a pleasant, relaxed ride."

Photo: Sprint Cycling Agency