CSC director Tristan Hoffman is delighted with the first professional victory of his young Danish rider Martin Pedersen, who won his first victory as a professional when he opened the Tour of Britain by winning the 162.6-kilometre first stage from Glasgow to Castle Douglas.
Pedersen was in a break early in the stage along with Spanish rider Luis Pasamontes (Unibet) and Australian Matthew Goss (South Australia.com.)
"Apparently the pursuers couldn't agree on who was to close the gap, so they got a 10-minute lead and finished two and a half minutes ahead of the peloton," said Hoffman.
"It was fantastic. [It's] wonderful to see a young Danish rider step up and win a race like that. Martin looked very strong right from the start and on the last part I was positive he was going to win. The Australian looked strong as well and he's a fairly good sprinter, but the final part of the route was uphill a bit and Martin had most energy left over."
Hoffman was confident that CSC would be able to win the stage if Pedersen was caught. "At one point a group of 12 riders formed behind the front group and here we had three riders: Jakob Piil, Luke Roberts and Karsten Kroon. So actually we did quite well in today's stage," said Hoffman.
