Pedersen angry at own team and one teammate in particular after opening stage Paris-Nice: "Not good enough"

While Tim Merlier dominated the opening stage of Paris-Nice on Sunday afternoon, Mads Pedersen had a very different afternoon. The Dane of Lidl-Trek, who normally does well in these sprint finals, only finished twelfth. He was very frustrated afterward and knew who to blame.

Pedersen and Paris-Nice: it has been a successful pairing so far. On Sunday, the Dane started for the sixth year in a row in the Race to the Sun, which suggests that he is more than happy to warm up for the classics in the French stage race. The former world champion has already won two stages in those six editions. Pedersen would have liked to have won three in Sunday's opening stage, but his teammates prevented him from doing so.

'There is not much to analyze,' a visibly frustrated Pedersen began his account to TV2. "There’s not much to analyze. It’s just terrible. The work being done today is simply not good enough. There’s not much to say. You can analyze all you want, but it’s just not good enough." Even though Pedersen had been given a lot of punch by riders such as Daan Hoole, Julien Bernard, Alex Kirsch, and Ryan Gibbons for Paris-Nice, it all went wrong on Sunday afternoon.

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Mads Pedersen at the 2024 World Championships in Zurich

Ryan Gibbons the culprit according to Pedersen

Pedersen even named a primary culprit. In the interview afterward, the Dane pointed the finger at Gibbons. "Ryan shows up way too late, and then I let him in. In the positioning battle, I lose them." So, will the rest of the Lidl-Trek team get off lightly? Anything but. "I also knew that the gap would open up on the left side at some point so that I could jump back onto their wheel, but they also lose each other," the Dane remained critical.

Did Pedersen have more criticism of his teammates in store? Yes, he did. Gibbons received another round of criticism. "Ryan stopped riding in the final, and that was his fault. If he had stayed on Alex's (Kirsch, ed.) wheel in turn, I could have caught up to them afterward," the Dane concluded his analysis. It was a total off day, according to Pedersen, who will be hoping for a completely different course of events on Tuesday. Then, in the finish town of Bellegarde, there will (probably) be another sprint for the win.

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