Rather dull in sprints, but as a mountain domestique, the strong Pedersen breaks records with crazy wattages

Pedersen came to Paris-Nice with the ambition of winning a stage. But he did not even get into the action in the first two stages: he finished twelfth in the first stage, after which he came in third in the following flat stage, behind stage winner Tim Merlier. He mainly blamed his team, but it is not the first time that the 29-year-old classics specialist has failed to impress in the sprint this season: his only stage win came in a duel with Matej Mohoric, but in the bunch sprints he has only managed one podium place so far.

But when the sprints don't work out, the Dane seems stronger than ever, which results in fantastic performances when the road goes uphill. In the queen stage of the Tour de la Provence, which he won, he dominated and almost single-handedly controlled the race. But his performance in Paris-Nice is also impressive when the road goes uphill, as domestique of leader Mattias Skjelmose. In the fourth stage, Pedersen remained among the very best for a long time and completely exhausted himself at the head of the group of favorites until 4 kilometers before the finish. Real climbers lost ground when he set the pace.

Pedersen was also invaluable in the fifth stage: with his strength, he split a group of about thirty men into two in the final. It is, therefore, not surprising that he breaks his own records, as he says in the Lang Distance podcast. "I have done 999 watts for one minute. I never reached the magic 1000 watts, but I did that day," he says about his performance during the fourth stage. ‘1003 watts in one minute," he laughs.