Mads Pedersen admits Milan-Sanremo looks unlikely in latest update

Pedersen shared the update on his Lang Distance podcast when asked about his current condition and the chances of making the early Classics.

“Yes, I would say so. It’s going to be damn difficult,” Pedersen said when asked if Milan-Sanremo [March 21] is likely out of reach. “Even E3 [March 27] will still be hard to reach. It’s still a complicated fracture and the bones in my hand haven’t healed yet.”

Originally, Pedersen had planned to build towards Paris-Nice, Milan-Sanremo, E3 and Gent-Wevelgem before turning his focus to his main targets, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. 

The Lidl-Trek rider recently had a brace removed from his wrist, which means he can start using his hand more normally again. However, that does not mean a return to racing is close.

“The splint I had was mainly to keep everything in place, and now it needs time to heal properly,” Pedersen explained. “My collarbone hasn’t healed yet either. So it’s not responsible to start racing again or spending huge hours out on the road.”

For now he continues to train while carefully managing the recovery process. “We keep working and we’ll see if it works out,” he said. “We believe in it until the very end, but nothing is certain yet.”

Pedersen’s injuries date back to a heavy crash during the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in early February, where he broke his left wrist and fractured his right collarbone in a high speed fall. “It was a stressful moment, everyone had to be at the front for a climb,” Pedersen explained earlier on the In the Middle of Lidl-Trek podcast.

In that same podcast Pedersen joked about the practical struggles of dealing with two broken bones at the same time.

“I could not wipe my ass, mate,” he said. “My left wrist was broken and I was in a cast up to above my elbow. And my right collarbone was broken so it was in a sling. I could not poop for five days. It was a tough birth when it finally happened.”