Mads Pedersen knows what is still missing ahead of Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix

His season had barely started before things immediately went wrong. In the opening stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Pedersen crashed heavily and broke both his wrist and collarbone, which required surgery. Even so, he returned earlier than expected, with the Dane producing a surprisingly strong fourth place at Milan-Sanremo.

That performance offered real encouragement, which is why IDLProCycling.com recently checked in with trusted domestique Mathias Norsgaard about the condition of his team leader. “He is probably in very good shape, I can tell you that. You saw that in Sanremo as well. He came straight out of training and was immediately close to the podium,” Norsgaard said last week.

Pedersen then finished ninth at E3, after which In Flanders Fields, the renamed Gent-Wevelgem, was also supposed to be part of his programme. That did not happen because of illness. According to Pedersen himself, that illness had already played a part on Friday. “If you’re missing five to ten percent at this level, it’s really hard to make a difference,” he said on his Lang Distance podcast.

That makes ninth place in E3 look even more respectable. The question now is where exactly he stands heading into Wednesday, when he is currently on the start list for Dwars door Vlaanderen. “The plan is that I race, but if there’s still some illness left in my body, it might be better to train hard instead of racing,” said the Lidl-Trek star.

So there is still some uncertainty, especially as the decision not to race last Sunday was also made as a precaution. “If I had dug myself completely into the ground, it wouldn’t have been a good week. Then we would be compensating all the way to Flanders, and we don’t need that,” Pedersen said, already looking ahead to Sunday’s Tour of Flanders.

Because make no mistake: “This year is all about the Monuments. Everything in between is just preparation.” And if he wants to strike in those races, the Dane knows exactly what is still lacking. “I feel that my top speed is still missing a little bit.” According to Pedersen, that is something that is difficult to rebuild after a wrist injury.

How that wrist reacts on the cobbles, we will find out either on Wednesday or on Sunday in the Tour of Flanders. But if he does start, Lidl-Trek’s plans are crystal clear. “When I start, it’s me we ride for. There are no shared leaders,” Pedersen said, leaving absolutely no doubt about it.