Pedersen saw team leader Skjelmose abandon in Luxembourg, but remains combative: "Of course, we want more"

Mads Pedersen won the second stage of the Tour of Luxembourg on Wednesday. He out-sprinted the race leader, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck). It was the Dane’s twelfth victory of the year, and one he acknowledged would not have been possible without his teammates.

“I don’t know if I was lucky,” Pedersen said in the flash interview, after the interviewer suggested it might have been fortunate that he still had so many teammates with him in the final. “I think I just have a really good team. But it was definitely a really tough final. On the climb with about 4 or 5 kilometers to go, when Uno-X pushed the pace hard, I had Amanuel (Ghebreigzabhier, ed.) to set a very strong tempo. We were able to close the gap, and no one wanted to attack anymore. On the descent, it was full gas, and Quinn (Simmons, ed.) and Alex (Kirsch, ed.) did a perfect lead-out,” said the Dane, beaming with pride at his team.

With Kirsch, who is racing on home soil in this Tour of Luxembourg, Pedersen has someone who knows the roads well. “Every day, he tells us things like, ‘this road is really narrow, so we need to be at the front.’ That’s really important to know, but overall, he’s been crucial for me throughout the entire season. A finale like this wouldn’t be the same without him.”

What’s next for Pedersen this week? After all, teammate Mattias Skjelmose crashed out of the second stage. “The plan was to go for the general classification with Skjelmose, but we lost him today. At least we’re leaving here with a stage win, so that’s okay. Of course, we want more. Tomorrow doesn’t suit me very well, but it should suit Quinn. He’s also in really good shape, so we’ll try to set him up for something nice tomorrow,” the former world champion concluded.