‘I clearly still need to get going’ - Mads Pedersen battling Tour de France hangover at Vuelta

Pedersen entered the final kilometres in a strong position and looked capable of challenging for victory, but when Brennan launched his sprint the Dane was unable to match the acceleration.

His challenge faded further inside the final 50 metres, allowing Pau Miquel and Tadej Pogačar to come past as Pedersen crossed the line in fourth place.

It was another solid result after Pedersen had finished 15th in the opening time trial, 16 seconds behind Pogačar, but not quite the start the former world champion had hoped for.

Speaking after the stage, Pedersen described a feeling more commonly associated with returning to racing after a long break than arriving at a second Grand Tour of the summer.

“I didn't have my best day,” Pedersen told TV2. “Skjelly [Skjelmose] described it really well. It feels a bit like coming back after the offseason. I clearly still need to get going again.”

Pedersen was equally straightforward when assessing the sprint itself.

“It actually went fine enough. I just didn't have the legs in the sprint,” he said. “Brennan is insanely fast in a sprint like this and I wasn't fast enough."

“Then I exploded in the final 50 metres and Tadej and another rider came past as well. But it doesn't really matter whether you finish second or fourth, does it?”

The conditions added another challenge, with the stage raced in significant heat. Pedersen admitted that racing in such temperatures felt different to training in them, although he refused to use that as an excuse for missing out on victory.

“It is different to start racing in the heat compared to training in it,” he said. “But that shouldn't be an excuse. I don't want that hanging over me. I just wasn't good enough to win today."

“But it is still pretty good to be that close despite not having my best day.”

Lidl-Trek sports director Kim Andersen offered some further insight into just how difficult the conditions had been for Pedersen.

Andersen said the Dane had already been struggling with the heat before the finale and revealed that his trip back towards the team cars with just under 30 kilometres remaining was largely about trying to cool him down.

“He came back because he needed as much cold water as possible and needed to cool down,” Andersen told TV2. “But as he told me afterwards, he was basically already cooked by then.”

Andersen also questioned the restrictions surrounding feeding and bottles in the conditions. Teams were no longer allowed to provide supplies inside the final 20 kilometres, despite Lidl-Trek having asked whether additional bottles could be handed out because of the temperature.

“We had asked in the meeting whether we could be allowed to provide bottles everywhere so we could give them more,” Andersen said. “They said that would happen when it got hotter. I don't know whether it can get much hotter than it was today.”

Pedersen himself was reluctant to put too much emphasis on the temperature, however.

Asked whether he was concerned about the heat with more hot stages to come, he dismissed the suggestion.

“No, not at all. I don't think the heat was really the reason why I didn't have my best day,” he said.

“Some days the body just doesn't quite want to do what the head wants it to do. It was probably just one of those days. You get them once in a while.”