{"id":624501,"date":"2026-04-22T23:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/624501\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:08:19","slug":"mads-pedersen-feared-his-career-was-over-after-early-season-valenciana-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/624501\/","title":{"rendered":"Mads Pedersen feared his career was over after early-season Valenciana crash"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nMichael Sch\u00e4r<\/a>, Lidl-Trek<\/a>‘s sporting director for that race, immediately feared the worst. But fortunately, the Dane gave positive feedback as soon as he had overcome the initial shock. “I asked him if he could move his legs and feet and he confirmed. This was good,” Sch\u00e4r said.Endless 90 minutes<\/p>\n

Pedersen was shipped to a nearby hospital in an ambulance but both Pedersen and Sch\u00e4r remember how difficult that one-and-a-half hour journey was.<\/p>\n

“It was quite an emotional ride. I remember telling Mikey: ‘Look, if my back is broken, I’m not coming back from this and cycling is not for me anymore,'” Pedersen said. “I know I’m a big fighter but there’s a limit for everything and that would’ve been my limit.”<\/p>\n

Sch\u00e4r recalls that he said he’d also step away if Pedersen had broken his back, and described the seriousness of such an accident. “Everything was in doubt,” he said. “I think it’s human in this moment that you start doubting a bit more than just the sport. You start doubting the big picture, what you’re actually doing here, is it worth it what you’re doing? This big questions come up.”<\/p>\n

The moment of reliefThe two men have eventually made it to the hospital where they received the “good” news in the sense that Pedersen’s back and neck were not injured as the Dane had feared. He didn’t escape damage-free, but collarbone and wrist fractures<\/a> are very much treatable nowadays. Estimated recovery period: 12 weeks.<\/p>\n

And since Pedersen is the warrior he is, he’d been back at the team hotel that same evening. That was crucial to the team’s mindset for the rest of the race, Sch\u00e4r describes this as a “typical Mads moment” which showcased why he is a “born leader”.<\/p>\n

\"Mads<\/p>\n

Mads Pedersen at the 2026 Paris-Roubaix<\/p>\n

While Mads kept a strong front, it was clear he was far from okay as he couldn’t even eat his dinner properly. “I tried to keep the mood high,” he added. “It was really tough. Eating was not possible, eating yogurts with a straw. I can’t even explain how hard it was, you can’t really move or eat.”<\/p>\n

Three months without racing would mean that Pedersen would’ve missed the entire spring, but cyclists are tough guys and so, mere six weeks later, Mads Pedersen was back at the Milano-Sanremo where he finished 4th. The former world champion was also 5th at Flanders and 7th at Roubaix. In that sense, it wasn’t exactly a success campaign, but given circumstances, it was almost as impressive feat as winning one of the Monuments would’ve been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michael Sch\u00e4r, Lidl-Trek‘s sporting director for that race, immediately feared the worst. But fortunately, the Dane gave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,49602,63568,302495,85,217961],"class_list":{"0":"post-624501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-lidl-trek","12":"tag-mads-pedersen","13":"tag-michael-schar","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-volta-a-comunitat-valenciana"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}