'Knowing Mads, he'll be ready' - Stuyven backs Pedersen for Classics despite crash

Jasper Stuyven has backed his former Lidl-Trek teammate Mads Pedersen to return to full fitness in time for the cobbled Classics. The Dane’s Spring campaign was thrown into doubt last week when he suffered a fractured wrist and broken collarbone in a crash on his first race day of the season at the Volta Comunitat Valenciana.

Pedersen underwent surgery the following day and on Monday he posted a short video on Instagram of himself riding on his turbo trainer with the caption “Reminder: enjoy the small steps forward.”

“Knowing Mads, he will be there, I think,” Stuyven told Sporzawhen asked about Pedersen’s chances of being competitive at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

“The key for Mads will be when he can really put weight on his wrist again during training. That will largely determine how fit he is to start his Spring. But Mads is certainly not someone you should write off just yet.”

Stuyven cited his own experience with a broken collarbone as a reason for his optimism regarding Pedersen’s chances. While Pedersen was swiftly back on the turbo trainer after his crash, Stuyven had to wait twice that length of time before he could resume light training following his heavy crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2024.

“Unlike Mads, I wasn’t back on the rollers after five days – not because my broken collarbone limited me, but because of the heavy impact of that nasty fall,” said Stuyven, who left Lidl-Trek for Soudal-QuickStep ahead of the new season.

“I couldn’t breathe for the first few days, and my rib cage was a bit bruised. That’s why I didn’t even think about getting on the bike at that point. 

“Ten days after my crash, which was the day of Paris-Roubaix, I was back on the turbo for the first time. A month later, I made my comeback in the Giro.”

Lidl-Trek have not yet outlined a timeframe for Pedersen’s return to racing. He had been due to race the Tour de Provence and Paris-Nice as he built towards Milan-San Remo and the cobbled Classics. 

Twelve months ago, Pedersen won Gent-Wevelgem and placed on the podium of both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, and Stuyven believed he could return to that level again even with a long stint of training on a static bike.

“Uno-X completed an altitude training camp this winter where they trained on the rollers for three out of four weeks,” Stuyven said. “Training on the rollers is very efficient in terms of workload. You can complete your intervals in a very targeted manner. If you have the mental strength for it, training on the rollers can certainly be a good bridging period after an injury.”