'One of my career goals is now accomplished' - Pedersen's Alpine heroics secure Tour green jersey
The Dane collected the full 25 points at the intermediate sprint for the third consecutive day in the Alps, extending his advantage over Jasper Philipsen to an unassailable 82 points ahead of Sunday's final stage in Paris.
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Green goal
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) said one of his career goals had been achieved after he all but secured victory in the Tour de France points classification following another aggressive day in the Alps.
With a maximum of 75 points available on the Champs-Élysées, and a lead of 82 points over Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Pedersen only needs to finish the Tour within the time limit to secure the green jersey.
It marks an emphatic conclusion to the green jersey contest, after Philipsen’s win in Voiron on stage 17 had reduced Pedersen’s lead to just seven points.
“It's nice. Yeah, what a week and what a Tour this has been. One of my goals in my career is now accomplished, so absolutely incredible to close the book today and basically just have to finish the stage tomorrow,” Pedersen said after the stage.
Pedersen had to dig deep to navigate the hors catégorie Col de la Croix de Fer at the start of the stage, and he impressively managed to bridge across solo to the breakaway.
The Dane made contact with the second group on the road on the descent, before Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) were reeled in ahead of the intermediate sprint in Saint-Julien-Mont-Denis.
“Yeah, I didn't want to overdo it at the bottom [of the Col de la Croix de Fer]. Doing my own pace and hoping at one point that the exact scenario that was going on would happen, that they would slow down a bit in the peloton,” Pedersen explained.
"I knew it would flatten out a bit in the last 5km, and there I had to take the chance, then do a good downhill, and it paid off today. It was absolutely incredible."
Montmartre
Having secured the green jersey, Pedersen can now focus entirely on Sunday's shortened final stage in Paris.
The final stage has been reduced by 44km due to a shortage of emergency services in the capital amid wildfires in the southwest of the country, though the finale over Montmartre and the Champs-Élysées has been maintained.
"Now I don't have to think about bad luck or punctures or whatever. Now it's all in for the win,” he said.
If Pedersen finishes the Tour, he will become the sixth rider in history to complete a full set of points classification victories at all three Grand Tours, adding the green jersey to his Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España successes.
Result: Tour de France stage 20
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