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Was Mads Pedersen’s stomping sprint to the top of the Monte Berico the most impressive victory of his career? The Dane is in the form of his life, and this was his most extraordinary win so far of this Giro d’Italia, so logic suggests so. You only had to look at the top 10 from the stage to see how versatile a rider Pedersen must be in order to win on such a finish; he had to beat puncheurs, climbers and GC men on the 10% slopes, but when he launched his sprint with around 200m to go no one — not even the resurgent Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) — could match him. For a sport that is finely tuned, where often being as light as possible matters so much, there was something thrilling about seeing raw power come out on top in a slow-motion drag race on a double-digit incline.
It was a ferocious sprint, the kind of performance only Pedersen could achieve at this Grand Tour. Perhaps not even cycling’s uphill sprint king, Mathieu van der Poel, would have matched the Lidl-Trek rider today. Apart from Van Aert in second place on the same time as Pedersen, there was a gap to everyone else, including the maglia rosa, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who is close to 15kg lighter than the sprinter. Behind Del Toro came Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), the diminutive French climber who weighs around 25kg less than Pedersen.
The final launch to the line might have been eye-catching, but it was the grit to stay in contention leading up to it that won Pedersen the stage today, and it is that which makes it his most impressive performance. If his win on stage five was a show of strength by his Lidl-Trek squad to set their leader up for victory, stage 13 was a show of individual strength, not only in the last 25 seconds but the whole final kilometre. Granted, he was a favourite for the stage, but there was always the caveat that he could win if the GC men didn't make it too hard on the final climb out of the city of Vicenza. However, in truth, they did make the climb hard — they just couldn’t match the Dane’s raw power when he decided to go for it. A master of long sprints, he produced one of the longest and sapping of his career today, and in doing so came out with one of the most remarkable watts per kilo performances over 30s that cycling has ever seen.
It’s Lidl-Trek’s fifth win of this Corsa Rosa, a formidable run that represents their best ever Grand Tour. Over the past 18 months, they have built themselves into a stage-winning machine, and in Pedersen and Jonathan Milan, they have the best versatile sprinter and arguably the best pure sprinter in the WorldTour. This combination was always bound to bring about wins and lots of them, and so it has proved. So what now for Pedersen and his squad? Tomorrow represents the last opportunity for a sprint before the final stage in Rome. Saturday’s stage into Nova Gorica, across the Slovenian border, has a flat finish, and although Pedersen has looked competitive in the flat bunch sprints, he hasn’t been able to win one yet. Whether he wins or not, his job at this Giro is far from over.
One of the reasons Lidl-Trek have been so successful this year is by deploying their stars to work for other team ambitions at Grand Tours. It’s a tactic Visma have been using for a while, with Van Aert being the most valuable teammate for his squad’s multiple aims, while at the same time being one of the most prolific riders in the world in his own right. Both Visma and Lidl-Trek recognise the rare breed that the top two on stage 13 represent — unlike pure sprinters, who tend to be one-trick ponies, these versatile riders bring their respective teams much more value for their investment. They can pace climbs, fetch bottles, provide draft and position their GC leader over all sorts of stages and terrains. If cycling were a football match, it’s like having a striker willing to sprint back to help their team defend. And as the peloton begins to turn to the Alps, Pedersen will be doing the less glamorous but potentially just as rewarding work of looking after his GC leader, Giulio Ciccone’s chance at a top-five finish. The Italian sits in seventh overall and is 2:20 behind the pink jersey Del Toro. With Pedersen and also Mathias Vacek in this kind of form, their GC man can rely on some serious firepower if he needs it in the final week. Pedersen’s climbing performance blew his rivals away, and Ciccone knows he’ll be in good hands when the road tilts upwards in the final week.
