'He won't race if he’s not 100% ready' - Mads Pedersen still a doubt for Classics

Pedersen sustained fractures to his left wrist and right collarbone in a crash on the opening stage of last week’s Volta Comunitat Valenciana, his first race of the season.

The injuries ruled the Dane out of this week’s Tour de la Provence and it remains to be seen if he will recover in time for next month’s Paris-Nice, his traditional build-up race to the Classics.

“If he is not ready, he cannot participate,” Andersen told Feltet. “We can’t anything but support him to the maximum as a team, knowing that he is strong enough and will do anything to get ready.”

Pedersen won Gent-Wevelgem for the third time last year and he placed on the podium of both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, and the former world champion had targeted a Monument victory in 2026. 

Andersen indicated that his compatriot would not be on the start line of the Ronde or Paris-Roubaix unless he was at full fitness. “I don’t think he’s going to race if he’s not 100% ready,” he said.

Pedersen returned to riding on his turbo trainer just five days after his crash, which prompted his former teammate Jasper Stuyven to back his chances of competing with Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel at the Classics. Andersen was more circumspect, pointing out that soft-pedalling aboard a turbo trainer could not be described as a return to training.

“It’s just to get my blood flowing, that’s not training,” Andersen said. “He hasn’t injured his legs and hip, so of course he can sit on a home trainer, but it’s not to train. It’s to get the blood circulation going, which helps to speed up the healing.”

Mat Hayman famously recovered from a broken arm with a hefty block of work aboard a turbo trainer to win Paris-Roubaix in 2016, but Pedersen’s fractures to both collarbone and wrist will complicate his comeback. 

“If it had just been the collarbone, it could have been fixed quickly, but there is the wrist on top of it,” Andersen said, though he was stoical about the setback.

“I’ve been in this for 30 years, and it happens all the time. Every time you are at the top, something comes. But what shows you are a good rider and a fighter is that you can come back.”