{"id":432828,"date":"2026-02-18T19:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432828\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:51:08","slug":"it-already-looks-really-difficult-injured-mads-pedersen-not-yet-admitting-defeat-about-spring-classics-return-despite-significant-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432828\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It already looks really difficult’ \u2013 Injured Mads Pedersen not yet admitting defeat about Spring Classics return despite significant challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen<\/a> is refusing to give up on his Spring Classics campaign for 2026 after breaking his collarbone <\/a>in a bad crash in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana,<\/a> but the signs are currently anything but good.<\/p>\n

The former World Champion has always been a major player in the Classics in recent years, with three victories in Gent-Wevelgem in his palmar\u00e8s as well as multiple podiums in both Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, including second in Flanders and third in Roubaix last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

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However, speaking for the first time since his accident on his Lang Distance<\/a> podcast, in comments reported by Ekstra Bladet<\/a> the Lidl-Trek racer said his current predicament was far from ideal.<\/p>\n

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“It already looks really difficult. All it takes is one more setback,” Pedersen said.<\/p>\n

Pedersen also described what actually happened in the crash itself in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, which he said happened on a descent on a left-hand bend, falling a metre onto a stone fence and going over the bars.<\/p>\n

Although there were initial fears that he might have broken his back, the final diagnosis was a broken collarbone and fractured wrist.<\/p>\n

He was taken to hospital and underwent surgery, and posted an Instagram story just over a week ago giving an update on his progress<\/a>. The video showed his bandaged wrist as he rode on the indoor trainer, with Pedersen posting the caption ‘Reminder: enjoy the small steps forward’.<\/p>\n

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According to the Ekstra Bladet<\/a> report, Paris-Nice – where Pedersen has taken three stages in his career and won the green jersey in 2025 – is no longer viable, Milan-San Remo may not be possible and there are question marks on the remaining Classics.<\/p>\n

“If there’s one more kick in the nuts, it might be impossible,” Pedersen added.<\/p>\n

“But I have to try, both for my own sake and for the boys around me. I have to try to make it work.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen is refusing to give up on his Spring Classics campaign for 2026 after breaking his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-432828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}