{"id":766508,"date":"2026-06-28T09:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T09:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/766508\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T09:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T09:51:11","slug":"mads-pedersen-on-what-its-really-like-to-race-tadej-pogacar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/766508\/","title":{"rendered":"Mads Pedersen on what it’s really like to race Tadej Pogacar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mads Pedersen<\/a> will be chasing the green jersey<\/a> in this year\u2019s Tour de France. The Dane from Lidl-Trek<\/a> has a chance to complete a nice trilogy: he\u2019s already won the points jerseys in both the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a and the Giro d\u2019Italia. But aside from his ambitions, he\u2019s actually a totally normal guy. In the Sigma Sports Caf\u00e9 Ride<\/a> with Matt Stephens, we get to know Mads Pedersen in a way we don\u2019t often see him.Pedersen has had a tough year so far. He crashed in the Tour of Valencia<\/a> and was badly battered. The Danish star saw his spring season in jeopardy, but he did everything he could to make it to the classics. He pulled it off brilliantly. There\u2019s one thing you can be sure of about the Lidl-Trek team leader: he can work hard like no other. A true training machine, and someone with unmatched drive.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not a perfectionist, though. He uses a cup of coffee made by his wife as an example. \u201cI could never go into that kind of detail. I know other people are much better at perfectionism than I am. That\u2019s why I have no problem leaving the training planning to my coaches. I just do what he says. I believe that what he does is perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the drive was there from an early age. Pedersen remembers his first race. He quickly learned an important lesson. \u201cI won it right away, and I thought, \u2018I\u2019m the best. I\u2019m the champion,\u2019\u201d he laughs. \u201cMy father told me to calm down. It was just a local race, with three clubs. But a week later, we went to an official race. In a 12-kilometer race, I lost six minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"mads-pedersen\"\/Pedersen on Roubaix with Pogacar: ‘I did 750 watts on the cobbles’On his ride with Stephens, the Dane climbs the Col de la Madone, a famous training climb starting from Nice. It\u2019s not a climb Pedersen does very often. \u201cI know Tadej Pogacar<\/a> holds the KOM here. Normally, I still have four kilometers to go once he\u2019s reached the top. To keep my own morale up, I often stay away from places where he\u2019s set records. He\u2019s on a whole different level.\u201dPogacar has often been a thorn in Pedersen\u2019s side. The Slovenian has snatched many a victory in a Monument right from under his nose. In this year\u2019s Paris-Roubaix<\/a>, Pedersen was dropped by the world champion. \u201cI was putting out 750 watts\u2014on the cobbles, on the flat. I said, \u2018This can\u2019t be possible. You have to outlast him!\u2019 But then: boom. They say you have to race smart to beat Tadej. But good luck with that, buddy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dream of winning Roubaix is still very much alive for the former world champion. Without Pogacar, that would be a slightly easier task, but he doesn\u2019t regret racing in the Pogacar\/Van der Poel\/Van Aert era. \u201cWhen people ask me if I hate racing during the same era as someone like Pogacar, I say no. It\u2019s great. But the day I hopefully beat him in a Monument someday will be even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"mads-pedersen-tim-van-dijke\"\/Pedersen is aware of the dangers of cycling: ‘It’s not healthy’<\/p>\n

Pedersen is someone who does his own thing. For example, he never trains at altitude, even though Lidl-Trek often tries to convince him to. But he\u2019s unshakable. \u201cYou\u2019re at altitude for 3.5 weeks, then you have the Dutch National Championships and the Tour. That means you\u2019re gone for two months. I don\u2019t get to see my wife and family then, but I can handle that. But I don\u2019t want to see my f*cking teammates for two months,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI love those guys, but at some point you just need a break.\u201d<\/p>\n

That mental peace is absolutely essential. Because cycling is incredibly tough. The Dane is also well aware of the physical dangers. And he\u2019s not even thinking about the crashes. \u201cWhat we do isn\u2019t healthy. Sports are healthy\u2014up to a certain point. The only good thing about what we do is that we motivate others to exercise too. But do I hope my kids will become professional cyclists someday? Absolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard shares that view as well. The two-time Tour winner is thinking primarily of his own crashes. \u201cHe has his opinions, and I have mine. But for me, it\u2019s not about the danger. It\u2019s about how you\u2019re destroying your own body. It\u2019s not healthy. If I could make that decision for my kids, I\u2019d know exactly what to do. Just go play badminton or tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mads Pedersen will be chasing the green jersey in this year\u2019s Tour de France. The Dane from Lidl-Trek…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,10873,50278,82,1422,262636],"class_list":["post-766508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-lidl-trek","tag-mads-pedersen","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}