In a world where it's mostly about Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, and Tadej Pogacar, being a cyclist can sometimes be unpleasant. Are there enough cycling fans aware of the fact that Mads Pedersen had his best season ever in 2023? The 28-year-old Dane has gradually developed since his surprising world title in 2019 and might be ready to challenge the established order in 2024. IDLProCycling.com had an in-depth interview with him.
Interviews with Pedersen will never be broadcast in their entirety in America. A 'f*ck' here or 'sh*t' there is not uncommon for the flamboyant powerhouse. In that respect, we start right off the bat, with the question of what he has done during the offseason in the past weeks. "Eat a lot of sh*t and not cycle", he laughs. 'Burgers, fries, pizza... Everything. All the things that other people eat occasionally, I eat maybe a bit too much during such a period. After that, it's not possible for a long time."
Geraint Thomas-style, then, completely derailing and then slowly finding the rails again. Pedersen prefers to do this from his home in Switzerland, but his wife Lisette had other plans. "We live 200 days a year out of a suitcase, so I don't necessarily need a vacation in the offseason. My wife likes it, though, so we often go away. In October, we had a team meeting in America, so my wife and I flew to New York afterward. There we just chilled."
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Pedersen won a stage in the 2023 Tour de France
After the holiday, it was time to tighten the belt again and start the preparation. The new cycling season begins in December with training camps and practice. However, for Lidl-Trek, there was also a need for a few days of team building in October. With the financial boost from the new sponsor Lidl, Pedersen now finds himself among an impressive lineup, including Tao Geoghegan Hart, Jonathan Milan, Andrea Bagioli, and the formidable Tim Declercq.
"The team had a good transfer period, if you can call it that. Some strong names have been added for the general classifications, classics, and sprints. I believe that we have a very strong team for the coming years. We can also start to distribute roles more among riders with similar profiles. A rider doesn’t have to compete in everything anymore," says Pedersen, who had a packed calendar in 2023 with the Flemish classics, the Giro, the Tour, the World Championships, and many other races. "For me, doing the Giro might not have been perfect, but I had the chance to win a stage, so we went for it. The calendar in 2023 wasn’t the best for me, but I think we have made a nice program for 2024. We want to do the right things for all the major races."
The goals for a rider like Pedersen have been consistent for years. He's going all in for the classics again in 2024, especially aiming to win his first Monument. In the summer, he'll be riding the Tour de France. "The Olympic Games are definitely a target for me as well. The course, on paper, seems to suit me, although I want to recon it first to decide if it will be my biggest goal of the year. It will certainly be one of my goals. The Tour de France will help in that regard. The 2023 World Championships were on the exact same number of days after the Tour as the road race at the Olympics will be. And I think we can agree that I had a good day at the World Championships," he says, with a sense of understatement. Pedersen finished fourth at the World Championships in Glasgow. "We believe that the Tour will be a good build-up for the Olympics."
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The big question is: can Pedersen improve upon his 2023 performance? He won a stage in both the Giro and the Tour, finished on the podium in the Tour of Flanders (third), was fourth in Paris-Roubaix, was among the best at the World Championships, and even excelled in mass sprints more than ever before. "I believe I've done everything I could so far. It's not like you can do a little more each year; I'm already at my maximum. I'll continue to do that, with trainers and nutrition coaches who are looking for new ways to be maybe a little lighter. That's something we're getting into now. I can't tell you exactly what I need to change to get those last percentages closer to the big guys. They just have more talent, but they're not unbeatable."
Pedersen talks about the increase in staff at Lidl-Trek, as changes have occurred not only among the riders but also in support personnel. There are new trainers, nutrition coaches, and physiotherapists. The team is now looking to emulate the success of teams like Jumbo-Visma. "I have the same trainer, with the same philosophy. The changes he makes are just details. Besides that, the team has grown significantly. We look at other successful teams, trying to adopt the good practices of Jumbo-Visma. But we also do what we can, with full support from the team. Extra nutrition coaches might not necessarily help me, but they might help others in the team. And maybe they'll help me too; it's the first time I've had a nutrition coach. We're going to try it, and maybe I'll gain some advantage, or maybe not," he explains.
"I need people to tell me what to do; I'm not going to figure it out on my own," says Pedersen. "I know what I'm good at, but I also know that my nutrition coach and trainer know better what I should do than I do. The same goes for nutrition: I have no clue what works and what doesn't. They tell me how much I can eat, like the Foodcoach app from Jumbo-Visma. Though we don't have an app. It's tough sometimes to pass up a piece of cake, but we have to. However, after Paris-Roubaix, I'll definitely indulge in some fries and ice cream. After Roubaix, I have time until my next goals."
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Can Pedersen improve even further?
Doing everything to get a bit closer to the world's top, one might wonder if Pedersen isn't already there. The challenge is that rivals like Van der Poel also seem to be continuously improving. "Maybe they will be better, but maybe I will be too. I focus on myself and can only respect the fact that they keep going in the winter," says the Dane about Van der Poel and Van Aert. "They can do that; it's their way of preparing for the classics. My preparation is different, also because I don't have the skills for cyclo-cross. We believe that my plan is the best to beat those guys in the spring. Let's make it clear that the classics come first, then the Tour, and then the Olympics."
Continuing hard training, better nutrition management, better support in terms of riders... There's one aspect that hasn't been discussed. Teammate Mattias Skjelmose mentioned in an interview with this website that Lidl-Trek also plans to make a difference with altitude training camps. The problem is, Pedersen doesn't participate. "I f*cking hate it. No, I don't do it, even if my coach would say so. Even if I could gain two or three percent? I don’t give a f*ck," he says earnestly, but with a smile on his face. "I tried it once, somewhere in France, and it was the worst experience ever."
Why exactly? "I don't want to sit on top of a mountain for three weeks, not seeing my family. And then race, which means not seeing them for another four weeks. That's two months in total. I'm too much of a family man to sacrifice that. Taking the family to altitude isn't an option either. You have twelve-hour days there, which is not for them. It's better to be at home, where they have a life. I prefer to complete my training camps in Mallorca, in the sun, but not on top of a mountain."