‘Some you win, some you lose’ - Lidl-Trek disappointed as Pedersen falls short at the Vuelta

There was a sombre mood around the Lidl-Trek bus after stage three of the Vuelta a España on Monday. With Mads Pedersen, the out and out favourite for the short, punchy stage between San Maurizio Canavese and Ceres, the team worked brilliantly throughout day, but came out with nothing to show for their efforts.

With the breakaway established early on during the 134.6km stage, the team’s distinctive jerseys headed to the front and took control. For the rest of the day they put in a flawless display, upping the pace to fatigue the pure sprinters ahead of the uphill finish into Ceres. With two men up the road, they positioned Pedersen so he could take the remaining points at the intermediate sprint.

With a combination of patience and strength they then won the huge battle for the first of three hairpin bends in the uphill final kilometre. Andrea Bagioli then led the race out of the second bend before handing over to compatriot Giulio Ciccone. 

When Ciccone had finished his effort just ahead of the final turn it was over to Pedersen to deliver the coup de grâce. But the moment David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) dived up the inside the entire day’s work unravelled, the Frenchman winning the sprint to the line. 

“We did it perfectly. I made my leadout, and then Ciccone had to ride to pretty much the last bend. But Gaudu was just the strongest,” Bagioli told reporters gathered round the team bus. “We wanted to win the stage because it was perfect for Mads. We tried. We tried as hard as we wanted, but in the end Gaudu won, so chapeau to him, but we'll try again in the coming days.”

It was the second time in two stages the team finished second, Ciccone falling victim to overall leader’ Jonas Vingegaard’s (Visma | Lease a Bike) late surge on Sunday’s second stage. But the Italian’s feelings were similar to Bagioli’s.

“I think we did a amazing job as a team today,” he said. “The main goal was to win the stage with Mads, I think we did a great stage and yeah, it was not easy to finish. I try to start my sprint long to launch Mads, and the race is like this. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. With yesterday and today, I think we are a bit disappointed, but Vuelta is still long and yeah, our shape is super good and we still have many occasion to win.”

A little later, Pedersen offered a brief reaction through his team. “The guys were incredibly strong all day. We knew no one would help us, so it was a tough day for all our riders. And then I regret not being able to finish it off. It’s hard to say, but second place is the first loser.”

“We’ve been close for two days now and we’ll keep fighting. The Vuelta still has a long way to go and we’ll show how incredibly strong we are,” said Pedersen, who may get another opportunity on Tuesday in Voiron. “The plan was executed to perfection, except for the finish. So really, chapeau to my teammates.”