'It could have been a stupid move' – Bold, brave effort pays off for Mads Pedersen in Gent-Wevelgem

"Oh shit, fucked up again" was the thought that briefly went through Mads Pedersen's mind as found himself attacking alone almost 60 kilometres from the finish of Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday. It could be a stupid move, he thought.

Ninety minutes later, though, the Dane crossed the line solo in Wevelgem to win the race for the third time, in the most impressive manner yet. A brave move, maybe even a crazy one, but not stupid.

"I have no idea, man," Pedersen said when asked what was in his head when he attacked the Flemish plugstreets, briefly taking two strong riders with him, but quickly finding himself with just Lotto's Arjen Livyns on his wheel and mopping up the breakaway.

"Really, I thought 'oh shit, fucked up again'. But on the other hand, last year Jonny opened up so we could sit on the wheel in the back and wait and let other people work. Today I saw the chance to go."

Going with a rider like Livyns, that is to say not a noted Classics rider, was not the ideal situation, however.

"Laurence Pithie, from Bora, he was really active and I hoped a guy like him would go with me on the plugstreets," Pedersen explained. "But then in the end I came to the breakaway and then on the Kemmel, Campenaerts was really going for it. Then I was like 'Now, I go full gas over' and then from there on I go as fast as I can and if it doesn't work out then at least I gave my teammates a free ticket [behind] to sit on the wheel and wait for the finish line.

"All in all, it could have been a stupid move, but in the end, it wasn't. It could have been a stupid move for myself but still work out okay for the team, so in the end I'm just happy I could finish it off and win the race."

The sense that Pedersen's move could have been a bit too much, too soon, was also shared in the team car, but any concerns were quickly allayed.

"We thought it was a little bit early, but he said he felt super strong and it was always a good position for us because Jonny was always behind and he was feeling good so we only needed to pull in front," Lidl-Trek DS Steven de Jongh told Cyclingnews.

"When he was alone, we knew he was going to make it. When he had more than one minute thirty there, in Ieper, we were quite confident he was going to make it. Behind there were all dead bodies," he added.

"Mads was outstanding today."

Charging through the breakaway and then going solo on the Kemmelberg is certainly a ride worthy of the word outstanding, but Pedersen was also acutely aware that a strong effort is one that can quickly be dismissed if it doesn't work out tactically.

"At one point, should I have waited on the group behind with Campenaerts and those guys?" he said. "But today I was able to do it alone, and that was good. If I couldn't do it alone then for sure all of you guys would have written something else that I should have waited, and it was a stupid move and so on."

There will be no journalists writing anything of the sort this evening though, because instead, the race was a Lidl-Trek masterclass, similar to what they've pulled off in this race before. Is there a secret to their success in this particular Classic?

"I just think this race suits me really well," Pedersen said. "It's not too much climbing but there's still a bit of climbing to make the difference, and then always the crosswinds parts are fitting me really well. I have a good team to support me and to do the right positioning of the crosswings sections, so there I save a lot of energy and I think that helps a lot."

For De Jongh, it's a combination of that early crosswind strength and the fact that Pedersen's teammates are also good in the climbs.

"I think we have a lot of guys who can pass Kemmel and the hill zone, plus they are capable of riding well in the crosswinds, so with the wind today it was strong enough to make an early selection, or at least make the race very hard, so that's why we controlled from the start," he explained.

A rare solo win for Pedersen

Though long, solo wins are becoming far more common in these big Spring Classics, it is an uncommon position to see Mads Pedersen in, a rider who is more at home in a reduced bunch sprint. It shouldn't be a surprise, though, with the Dane well aware that conditions on Sunday suited him.

"For sure 50k solo is always special, especially in a Classic like this. But I also know, when we end up in this distance, plus 220 ks, I know the body and the engine responds quite well, so I knew I could do something like that," he said. "Also the tailwind the whole way back the last 25 ks, it's helping me a lot. If it was full headwind or crosswind, I don't think I would have been able to do this."

That's not to say that Pedersen will try to become a solo specialist, however, and he was well aware that his strengths and abilities are very different from those of the riders he's up against in the other big Monuments.

"If you're able to win solo, it's an easier final, but I would also have been happy to be five guys and go for a sprint. A guy like Tadej [Pogačar], for example, it's just I would say easier for him to go solo because he's really able to do this almost every time he's racing, and then you don't have to think about five other guys attacking in the final k's, to go right or left or having to close all the gaps and so on. So for a guy like him, I think it's just easier to go alone."

Sunday was a huge performance from Pedersen, and one that shows he's more than capable of the monster moves that his rivals Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar. Just don't wait for a repeat effort too soon.

"Don't expect me to do that all the time. It's one out of a million I'm able to do this," he said. "It just worked out today. Maybe next time it won't."

And perhaps it won't. Perhaps next time it will end up written off as a stupid move. But the line between crazy and genius is thin in bike racing, and today Pedersen got it just right.

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