Mads Pedersen abandons Tour de Pologne after stage 5 crash

Mads Pedersen was a non-starter on stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne following his crash in the finale in Katowice on Friday. The Lidl-Trek rider plans to make a swift return to competition at the Deutschland Tour, which gets under way on Wednesday.

“After yesterday’s crash in @tourdepologne the team and I have decided to abandon the race,” Pedersen posted on social media on Saturday morning. “Gives me a few more days to recover, before @deutschlanddeinetour starts next week!”

Pedersen was among the fallers in a crash with a little over 3km remaining on stage 5 to Katowice, where Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) claimed victory in a bunch sprint. Caleb Ewan (Jayco-Alula) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) were also held up in the same crash as Pedersen.

Although Pedersen was able to remount and cross the finish line, Lidl-Trek announced on Saturday morning that he had abandoned the Tour de Pologne in order to aid his recovery ahead of the Deutschland Tour.

Pedersen enjoyed a fine Spring Classics campaign, winning Gent-Wevelgem ahead of Mathieu van der Poel and placing third at Paris-Roubaix, but his season has also been punctuated by ill fortune.

The Dane was among the fallers in the mass crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen in March, while he was forced to abandon the Tour de France towards the end of the opening week after coming down in a crash at Saint-Vulbas on stage 5.

Pedersen returned to action at the Paris 2024 Olympics road race, where he placed 20th. He is expected to be among the main contenders for the European Championships road race in Hasselt on September 15.