Not yet a WorldTour rider, but Söderqvist breaks Pedersen: "I’m trying to make everything perfect ahead of Worlds"

It was already well known that Söderqvist could put in a good time trial performance. Nevertheless, his victory in the time trial in Denmark was his first professional win for Lidl-Trek. He did become the time trial and road champion in Sweden in June, but he had not yet been successful in a race. Officially, he is still part of the Lidl-Trek development team, so that's not surprising.

In the Tour of Denmark, he once again had the opportunity to compete at the highest level, where he will be transferred to the WorldTour team in 2026. However, after his victory, Söderqvist was mainly focused on the bigger picture. “We haven’t been a strong name in cycling in the last decade or so, but it’s really nice to be able to grab a win like this and also show it in the national jersey makes it almost twice as special.”

In the Lidl-Trek press release, the 22-year-old fast rider continued: “On this day we try to celebrate Swedish cycling in a country where cycling has grown really big in the last couple of years.” Söderqvist said of his time trial: “It was short enough to not be too much about pacing. I went out aggressive, and I tried to finish aggressive, but maybe I could have spent a little bit more in the tougher headwind parts, but this is a small detail for the next races. I tried to get into the TT mindset again after not too many races this season and I’m trying to make everything perfect ahead of Worlds, but I think we are on a good way.”

In conversation with the Danish Feltet, number three Pedersen also told his story. The Dane remained in the lead, ten seconds ahead of Niklas Larsen, who surprisingly kept pace in the time trial on behalf of the continental BHS-PL Beton Bornholm. “It's good that we won a stage on day 1, now we'll add another one. The time trial hurt. After all, I started very fast because I wanted to win it.”