Mads Pedersen heaps praise on teenage sensation Albert Withen Philipsen

Albert Withen Philipsen is one of Denmark's up and coming young stars, with the 19-year old Dane a Junior World Champion and riding for Lidl-Trek in his neo-pro season where he has flourished, from winning the white jersey at the Santos Tour Down Under, to podium finishes in Paris-Tours and Tre Valli Varesine. His teammate, Mads Pedersen praised the 'wonderkids' season. 

"We don't want to talk about Tadej [Pogačar] and all his results. Albert has bloody well done brilliantly," Pedersen stated emphatically on his Lang Distance podcast with fellow cyclist Jakob Egoholm.

The Lidl-Trek youngster has every reason to be proud after securing podium finishes in the, aforementioned, Paris-Tours and Tre Valli Varesine. In the latter, Philipsen finished best of the rest behind the out of this world Tadej Pogačar with a brilliant kick to the line ahead of former two-time World Champion, Julian Alaphilippe and Paul Lapeira, both obtaining a wicked punch, only demonstrating further the power that Philipsen has at his disposal.

Even more so, Philipsen's performance in the extremely hilly one-day race, Giro dell'Emilia, was positive, he managed to stay within a distance of some of the world's best climbers.

Pedersen, a former world champion himself, was especially impressed given that the Italian classics weren't even Philipsen's primary focus for the 2025 suggesting Philipsen is exceeding his development expectations.

"It's not even because he's taken the next step. He's taken two or three steps forward. Especially considering that the Mountain Bike World Championships went wrong for him with illness [crash] and so on," Pedersen explained.

The 19-year-old had initially targeted the Mountain Bike World Championships as his main autumn goal, but a crash in a World Cup event where he injured his shoulder derailed those ambitions.

Rather than dwelling on the setback, Philipsen quickly reset his goals and is now reaping the rewards with an impressive late-season campaign on the road with a showing on mental fortitude, highlighted by Pedersen,

"The fact that he turned it around at such a young age and is ready to ride so strongly here at the end of the year. Huge respect to Albert," Pedersen concluded.

Philipsen's breakthrough victory, after his white jersey win at the Santos Tour Down Under, is almost certainly going to arrive in 2026 as the Dane keeps on progessing as a young rider.