Denmark's 'big generation' on show at Tour de France, says Pedersen

With two wins in three days and Jonas Vingegaard, Danish riders were enjoying their strongest Tour de France since Bjarne Riis' victory 25 years ago.

In Saint-Etienne, former world champion Mads Pedersen came through to add to the success, taking victory from the breakaway for his first career Tour stage victory and Denmark's third this week. The 26-year-old came out on top from a very strong seven-man break, which was established after a long battle early on the 192.6km stage.

Pedersen was always likely to be the quickest finisher from the group but attacked 12km from the line to slim it down to three, and later outsprinted Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) to claim the glory.

He's the third Danish stage winner in just four days at the Tour, giving the nation more to celebrate after the massive crowds that attended the Grand Départ in the country two weeks ago.

"We felt a lot of support already in Denmark, and also here in France. It's really crazy to see all the Danish people," Pedersen said in the post-race press conference at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard.

"The Tour puts, let's say, four or five stages that fit the Danish guys so good so close to each other. I think that's more luck than it was anything else, but it also shows that we have a good mix of riders in Denmark with Jonas, Magnus [Cort] and a more sprinty guy like me. It's just crazy that we have three wins in such a short amount of time."

Pedersen, Vingegaard, and Cort are accompanied by seven other Danes at the Tour, with the country's 10 representatives the fourth-most in the peloton – equal with the Dutch and more than Spain.

Last year's race was the recent high watermark at 11, while recent successes scored by Danes have included Vingegaard's podium last year, Kasper Asgreen's 2021 Tour of Flanders triumph, and Jakob Fuglsang winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia in 2019 and 2020, among others.

Pedersen attributed Danish cycling's recent resurgence to the work put in at club and junior level and beyond. He wanted to thank those who had helped him and other Danish stars to get where they are now, adding that he hopes the developmental support will continue in the future.

"I think all the hard work from local clubs, junior teams, people who were doing this for free to help talents, the national team, the continental teams – all this work is really paying off now," he said.

"For so many years, it was working so well in Denmark with all this support and now we have a big generation which is doing really well and it's showing on the biggest stage right now.

"It's a huge thanks to everyone who was supporting all the riders as kids and from there on let's just hope that people will keep supporting talents and people who are dreaming."

A debut Tour win, aided by teammate Simmons

On a personal level, the win represents a breakthrough at the Tour, with Pedersen having finished on the stage podium three times since making his debut at the race back in 2020 – including on stage 2 in Nyborg this year.

"It's really big. It's a relief," he said. "I was really working hard this season to be the best possible, especially with the start in Denmark and I didn't have to win in Denmark as I really dreamed about but now the win is here. I'm so happy not only for me, but for the whole team so that's really, really nice.

"I learnt from home to have a lot of confidence," he joked, referring to racing on home roads earlier in the Tour. "I also think I started this morning with a lot of confidence but definitely it gives a boost for the next days. So, we will see how we're going to do it the next two days."

As well as commenting on the current auspicious state of Danish cycling and signalling his own relief at grabbing a stage win at the Tour, Pedersen also took time to thank his teammate, race debutant Quinn Simmons.

The American sophomore pro made it into the day's break along with Pedersen, eventual podium finishers Wright and Houle, and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar).

He had also made the day's break last week on the longest day of the Tour to Longwy, though this time Simmons put himself to work for Pedersen. The Dane only had good things to say about his teammate, who attacked to force the break and then drove the move on his behalf later on.

"So Quinn he definitely played a big part of today," Pedersen said. "I was in the big breakaway in the beginning, but always when 20 guys are up the road it's never easy to get everyone to turn and Alpecin-Deceuninck definitely wanted a different [outcome].

"But the moment [the team] called us, Quinn went straight away and attacked again. Then we went away from there and Quinn was pulling harder and longer than I did – especially on the climbs, where we took a lot of time on the peloton. So definitely he was a big part of the win today and so a huge thanks to him.

"The attack with 10km to go... I knew I would be the fastest one in the sprint, if it came down to that. But to control five other guys is never easy and I wanted to get away with as few as possible and luckily it split out half-half, so it was easier to control two guys than five guys."