Mads Pedersen discovers he is not unbeatable after all: "It turned out quite different to our plan"

On Sunday, Mads Pedersen had to acknowledge defeat to Olav Kooij for the first time this season during the opening stage of Paris-Nice. The Danish sprinter from Lidl-Trek, who had been unbeatable until then, finished a close second after a hectic and crash-filled day.

"It turned out quite different to our plan," Pedersen starts his account of the day on the Lidl-Trek website. "We thought it would be more of a bunch sprint. In the end, we were still with fifty to sixty riders for the sprint, but I would say that twenty of them had just come back in the last kilometers. When the GC guys opened up the finale for the bonifciation with fifteen kilometers to go, the race was on, and it was all about staying at the front. It was good that I, Mattias Skjelmose, and Jasper Stuyven were still in the group, so we didn't have to fight to come back."

Pedersen had to struggle to catch up with Evenepoel and co

"I wouldn't say I was in control when Remco attacked. It was pretty hard, and I had to dig deep, but I was one of the few sprinters who were still right at the front and didn’t have to fight to come back, which feels good. As always, the guys did a great job.

In the end, I was beaten by a faster guy, and that's just how it is. Ideally, I would have opened the sprint fifty to a hundred meters later, and then I think I would have won. It is what it is, the form is still there. It was tough going in the last fifteen kilometers, so that's good."