Professional cycling is made up of categories. The lightweight, pure climbers; the fast men who thrive in a bunch kick; the rouleurs who relish rolling terrain; the diesel engines who can be put to work for hours on the front of the peloton. Usually, bike riders slot neatly into one of these groups. This is how sports directors recruit a well-rounded roster, it is how they make a selection for big races. Occasionally though, a few times per generation, you get the outliers.
These are those who don’t fit in, repeatedly confusing and amazing with their performances which defy bike racing’s usual logic. We can name a few in the current crop of professional cyclists: world champion Tadej Pogačar is the most prevalent – the man who can win the Tour de France and finish second at Paris-Roubaix in the same season. Another is Wout van Aert, who outclasses everyone on Mont Ventoux but also eats up the cobbles of his Belgian homeland. A third rider who comes to mind, even more so after his performances during this year’s Vuelta a España, is Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen.
Image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
There’s a strong case to be made for the Danish rider to be classed as one of the greatest performers in the WorldTour peloton this season. This isn’t because of the individual number of race victories Pedersen has achieved – though 59 career wins is an impressive total – but because of his exploits on such a vast range of terrain and race scenarios. If we look back to the start of the year, the 29-year-old did not finish outside of the top-5 in any major Classics, he then went to the Giro d’Italia to win four stages and the points jersey. In the Italian Grand Tour, Pedersen was a rouleur extraordinaire, making it over climbs few thought he would be able to while still having a punch to finish things off at the line.
But that was the Giro. Could the Lidl-Trek man repeat his performances at the Vuelta, where the climbs are notoriously steep and challenging and when he has a season of all-out racing in his legs? Would the long, extended race calendar – Pedersen is on his 62nd race day of 2025 already – start to bite? Would we see a less hungry, more fatigued version of the Dane?
Pedersen has answered those questions, firmly, with his legs. While there has not yet been a stage victory for the Lidl-Trek rider, neither has there been a stage where we haven’t been talking about him. Pedersen’s determination to win the points classification in this Spanish Grand Tour, despite what he has already achieved this season, is to be admired. The way he is going about trying to do it is perhaps the most impressive thing about it all.
Image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
The 29-year-old never seems to run out of energy or motivation. He is relentlessly driven, getting himself into breakaways, constantly attacking on the front of the bunch, never accepting that a stage is too difficult for him to add to his intermediate sprints points tally. Pedersen has been making it over category one climbs with the lightweights, positioning himself tactically to allow himself sliding room when the gradients get tough. His physical strength is one thing, but his mentality and tactical astuteness is what makes Mads Pedersen the phenomenal bike rider he is.
Stage 12, where he finished in 5th place and added another 40 points to his lead in the intermediate sprints classification, included over 2500 metres of elevation gain, spread out between rolling climbs throughout the 144km route. The final ascent spanned 7 kilometres at almost 8 percent average gradient. These numbers didn’t instil fear in Pedersen though – in fact, that’s a word that doesn’t even seem to be in the Danish rider’s vocabulary – they simply posed a challenge for him to take on. And that’s what he did, on a day when many wouldn’t have expected him to be up there at all.
“It’s nice these days when my legs are doing the same as what my head wants,” Pedersen grinned in his post-stage press conference.
That’s who Mads Pedersen is. A bike rider who deals with whatever is thrown at him by fighting back with a ridiculous engine and a bucket load of self-belief. Whether it is hilly terrain, flatlands or anything in between, the Danish rider is going to give it his all. A pure, thoroughbred bike racer, in a category of his own.
Cover image: ASO/Unipublic
