Mads Pedersen delivers worrying medical update ahead of the Spring Classics

Pedersen went down in the opening stage in Spain, suffering fractures to his collarbone and his wrist. Because the crash was not shown live on TV, the Lidl–Trek leader used the podcast episode to explain exactly what happened—and why the first moments after the fall were so frightening.

“In a narrow descent we came into a left-hand corner, where two riders on the left side of the road were riding next to each other, meaning there was no space left for the riders on the right,” Pedersen explained. The former world champion ended up off the road and hit the ground hard, landing on his head and back after flipping over.

Pedersen said he immediately knew his collarbone was broken, but the first medical staff on the scene feared something even worse: a back fracture. Thankfully, that was ruled out—but the eventual diagnosis was still serious, with a broken left wrist and a fractured right collarbone after the high-speed impact.

Mads Pedersen has been one of the standout riders in the Classics in recent years, and Lidl–Trek had built much of its spring around him once again.

Lidl–Trek had already communicated earlier that Pedersen will only return once he can be genuinely competitive. The rider himself has already been able to spin lightly on the rollers to keep the blood flowing, but he admits that getting back to full strength for this spring’s biggest one-day races will be extremely difficult.

Paris–Nice and Milan–Sanremo already look likely to be off the table. “It already looks very difficult now,” Pedersen said of what remains of his spring. “One more setback and it might be impossible. But I have to try—for myself and for the guys around me. I have to try to make it work.”

Under normal circumstances, Sanremo would be followed by a full focus on the Flemish Classics and Paris–Roubaix. For Pedersen, however, it is now a pure race against the clock. Either way, fans will not see him at Opening Weekend: the rider who won Gent–Wevelgem last season and finished on the podium at both the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix was never planning to race there this year.