{"id":468182,"date":"2026-03-10T18:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/468182\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:08:12","slug":"its-going-to-be-damn-difficult-mads-pedersen-casts-fresh-doubt-over-milano-sanremo-return-as-fractures-delay-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/468182\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s going to be damn difficult\u201d \u2013 Mads Pedersen casts fresh doubt over Milano-Sanremo return as fractures delay comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven E3 will still be hard to reach,&#8221; the Danish former world champion adds. &#8220;It\u2019s still a complicated fracture, and the bones in my hand haven\u2019t healed yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recovery still in its early phase<\/p>\n<p>Pedersen revealed that while a brace has now been removed from his wrist, the process of recovery is still far from complete. \u201cThe splint I had was mainly to keep everything in place, and now it needs time to heal properly,\u201d he explained. \u201cMy collarbone hasn\u2019t healed yet either. So it\u2019s not responsible to start racing again or spending huge hours out on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Danish star crashed heavily on the opening stage of the Volta Comunitat Valenciana earlier this season, breaking both his wrist and collarbone in an incident that immediately disrupted his carefully planned build-up to the Classics.<\/p>\n<p>Before the crash, Pedersen had been scheduled to follow his usual route toward the cobbled campaign, including races such as Paris-Nice and Milano-Sanremo, before shifting focus to the Belgian one-day races.<\/p>\n<p>Those stepping stones have already disappeared from his programme.<\/p>\n<p>A race against the calendar<\/p>\n<p>The latest update reinforces the scale of the challenge. Even if Pedersen returns to the bike soon, the timeline now appears extremely tight.<\/p>\n<p>Milano-Sanremo, long one of the Dane\u2019s major spring objectives, is rapidly approaching, while races such as <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/e3-saxo-classic\" title=\"E3 Saxo Classic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">E3 Saxo Classic<\/a> and Gent-Wevelgem follow shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>For a rider whose preparation normally involves weeks of road training and racing rhythm, the lack of outdoor kilometres is a significant concern. \u201cWe keep working, and we\u2019ll see if it works out,\u201d Pedersen said. \u201cWe believe in it until the very end, but nothing is certain yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bigger targets still ahead<\/p>\n<p>Despite the growing uncertainty surrounding the early part of the calendar, Pedersen\u2019s ultimate spring ambitions remain unchanged.<\/p>\n<p>The former world champion has repeatedly spoken about his desire to win one of cycling\u2019s Monuments, particularly the cobbled races that suit his powerful, aggressive style. With Milano-Sanremo now looking increasingly unlikely, attention may shift toward the bigger northern goals later in the spring. That possibility remains dependent on recovery.<\/p>\n<p>Pedersen has already returned cautiously to indoor training as part of his rehabilitation, but the next phase of his comeback will be dictated by how quickly both fractures heal and how soon he can safely resume full road training.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the outlook remains uncertain.<\/p>\n<p>Pedersen and Lidl-Trek continue to hope that progress in the coming weeks will reopen the door to the Classics. But as the Dane himself admits, the margin for error has become extremely small.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; \u201cEven E3 will still be hard to reach,&#8221; the Danish former world champion adds. &#8220;It\u2019s still a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,167713,109119,114899,109543,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-468182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-e3-saxo-classic","tag-lidl-trek","tag-mads-pedersen","tag-milano-sanremo","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468182","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=468182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}