Mads Pedersen honest after race - 'There was that little spike missing'

Pedersen was part of the early move that opened the race and forced teams onto the back foot. Lidl-Trek committed early and fully.

“I think it was a good plan. In the end, maybe we burned a few too many matches, but it is what it is,” the Dane said to reporters, including Domestique. “We gambled today. It didn’t pay off one hundred percent, but it is what it is.”

As the race exploded on the Eikenberg with Van Aert’s acceleration, Pedersen found himself just lacking that final gear to follow the very best. Something he had already expected.

“There was maybe just that little spike missing,” he said. “I knew that already. With a broken wrist for six weeks, it’s not easy to do those efforts. It’s mostly been seated training, so we expected that.”

Up the road, Van Aert looked set for victory after dropping his companions and committing to a long solo effort, but Ganna’s late surge turned the race in the final moments.

“We knew in the end that to catch him, it had to be a long sprint,” Pedersen said. “Ganna did it perfectly. He waited long enough and then caught him on the line.”

Pedersen, meanwhile, could still rely on a solid base even if the sharpness is not fully there yet as he finished 10th on the day. “I had the legs to do a proper sprint, but that’s also the part I’m missing from the injury. The sprinting part,” he said. “Still, it was a good day of racing, and that’s the most important.”

There was a brief suggestion that efforts like these might carry into the weekend, but Pedersen quickly shut that down. “As I said before the race, today we are racing today. It has nothing to do with Sunday.”

With the Tour of Flanders approaching, he remains cautious about his chances. “I won’t stand here and tell you if it’s good enough or not. I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll give you a better answer after the race on Sunday.”

Yesterday, Lidl-Trek directeur sportif Grégory Rast already managed expectations for Pedersen to take on Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel.

“I think if you go head-to-head with him, it’s difficult. If you’re there with him on the third time up the Kwaremont, it’s very difficult to stay with him. We don’t want to give up, of course, but we need to take the chance when we get one.

“We believe in both Flanders and Roubaix, like we also believed in Sanremo. But the biggest one, and the biggest chance, is still Roubaix.”