Mads Pedersen abandons Vuelta a España as infection requires antibiotics

Lidl-Trek confirmed on Wednesday morning that Pedersen would not take the start after battling illness over the past few days. The Dane will now focus on making a full recovery before turning his attention to his remaining objectives this season.

“Unfortunately, Mads Pedersen will not take the start of today’s stage 11 of La Vuelta,” the team said. “After battling illness over the past few days, Mads will now focus on making a full recovery before turning his attention to his remaining targets this season.”

The decision comes after Pedersen was surprisingly distanced with around 30 kilometres remaining on stage 10 on Tuesday. Speaking after the stage, the former world champion admitted that something was clearly wrong, despite feeling that his underlying condition was good enough.

“I don’t know really what to say, the level is not there right now,” Pedersen told Eurosport. “You know it’s not the shape. The shape is good enough, but something is clearly not as it should be.

“So I think now is the time to really look at it, instead of saying ‘In a few days, maybe…’ Now we go back and we will see what the best plan will be for the next part of the race.”

Pedersen had already revealed on his Lang Distance podcast during the Vuelta rest day that he had been dealing with a sore throat. There had still been signs that his race might turn around, most notably when he sprinted to second place behind Bryan Coquard in Xeraco on stage 8.

Even after his difficulties on Tuesday, Pedersen had initially hoped to continue the race. With the World Championships in Montreal on September 27 among his major remaining goals, he viewed completing the Vuelta as potentially valuable preparation.

“It’s more than one guy who have to take this decision,” Pedersen said after stage 10. “Of course, I would like to keep going in the race, but also it has to make sense at one point.

“For me, I’m not on the way home. I still believe that it will turn, and it’s still a long way to Granada, and I still believe this is a good preparation for World Championships.”

Less than 24 hours later, however, Lidl-Trek decided that recovery should take priority.

Sports director Kim Andersen gave an update to TV 2 Sport. “There is no point in continuing. There was something in his body, because his training for the Vuelta had been good. But it already started a few days before he came here, with a cold. You did not think it was any worse than that. However, the tests we carried out yesterday showed that it is not a virus, but an infection, so he needs antibiotics.”

Pedersen arrived at the Vuelta after an eventful season. He suffered a broken collarbone and wrist on his first race day of 2026 at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, but returned quickly and went on to finish fourth at Milan Sanremo, fifth at the Tour of Flanders and seventh at Paris Roubaix.

He then claimed the green jersey at the Tour de France, completing his collection of points classification victories across all three Grand Tours.

The Vuelta had proved more difficult. Pedersen was unable to reproduce his Tour form consistently and his illness increasingly affected him in recent days, eventually forcing him out of the race before stage 11.

His attention will now turn to recovering in time for the final part of his season, with the Montreal World Championships still looming later this month.