Mads Pedersen reveals juicy anecdotes about Mathieu Van der Poel - "What if" isn't part of his dictionary

For Mads Pedersen and Lidl-Trek, the cobbled classics are over. The Danish leader of the German-American team began 2025 with the clear goal of winning a Monument, but after Paris-Roubaix, he returns home without one. In Roubaix, it could have happened, until bad luck completely removed him from the front of the race. Still, “what if” doesn’t exist in the pragmatic Pedersen’s mindset.

With 71 kilometers to go, the lead group in Paris-Roubaix consisted of Mathieu van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen, Tadej Pogacar, Stefan Bissegger, and Pedersen himself. The Dane got there thanks to excellent teamwork from Lidl-Trek. Although Edward Theuns and Jasper Stuyven crashed out early, Daan Hoole, Mathias Vacek, and Tim Declercq made sure their leader started the first cobbled sectors in perfect position.

Pedersen then took initiative multiple times and rightly earned his place in the front group of five. But with 70 kilometers to go, while in a good position, he suffered a puncture. Gone from the front and realistically, gone were his chances. He swapped wheels with teammate Daan Hoole and tried to rally the chasing group to bridge back up, but it proved too much. A third place was the maximum possible, and that’s where he finished, beating Wout van Aert and Florian Vermeersch in a small sprint.

Read more below the tweet!

Post-Paris-Roubaix 2025 press conference Mads Pedersen

Mads, have you answered the famous "what if?" question yet?

“No, and I don’t want to give one either. Because we’ll never know, and I’m not going to say anything about it. It’s always if, if, if. I had a lot of bad luck at a bad moment and that’s the story. It is what it is, not what if.”

How did you feel up to that moment?
“I felt really good, and the team genuinely did an amazing job by always keeping me at the front and pulling hard. Everything was going really well—until that moment.”

There were quite a few flat tires. Was that because of the rain?
“In my opinion, it didn’t change much. Whether it rains or not, you’ll still see those flat tires. If you hit a stone, you’re done for. That goes for everyone.”

Read more below the video!

Was it hard to mentally switch after that?

“You have to. When you get knocked back, you have to refocus on what comes next. At that point, we weren’t even riding for the podium yet in the chasing group, but you also know: in Paris-Roubaix, anything can happen. If you keep fighting, you might still end up on the podium. And that’s exactly what happened.”

In the finale, you were with Wout van Aert and Florian Vermeersch. Did you feel like you were the strongest of the three?

“No, not at all. I wanted them to work on the cobbled sectors too, so they had to do some pulling as well. It also seemed like they were taking turns trying to attack, but I just tried to keep the pace high to launch the sprint. Luckily, I was still strong enough.”

Two weeks ago you called Mathieu a monster, but how would you describe him now?

"That monster hasn't disappeared, so I think I'll leave him at that status."

Is it a shame you won't be competing against him in the next one? (Pedersen rides the Giro and Copenhagen, Van der Poel the Tour, ed.)

“I’m looking forward to not racing against him and Tadej for a while. We should enjoy the battles we’ve had together, and not just take them for granted as if great racing like this is always a given. Mathieu and Tadej will do the Tour, but that’s a completely different approach. People need to accept that, and we should just enjoy these fights in the classics. Then we wait another twelve months.”

How unique is this?

“That’s up to you guys. We just enjoy racing against each other. See you next week.” (grins)

Read also

🎥 Van der Poel hit in the face with Visma | Lease a Bike water bottle during dramatic Paris-Roubaix finale: "Enough to break my jaw"

After Pogacar's crash, Van der Poel, despite water bottle thrown at his head and flat tire, wins third straight Paris-Roubaix

🎥 Pogacar (bleeding after 3-ton crash) and Van Aert (bleeding knee) crash, Pedersen and Ganna puncture, Teunissen crashes

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