Pedersen on the fight against 'super humans' and the dangers of the sport: 'It is not healthy'

Mads Pedersen will be chasing the green jersey in this year’s Tour de France. The Dane from Lidl-Trek has a chance to complete a nice trilogy: he’s already won the points jerseys in both the Vuelta a España and the Giro d’Italia. But aside from his ambitions, he’s actually a totally normal guy. In the Sigma Sports Café Ride with Matt Stephens, we get to know Mads Pedersen in a way we don’t often see him.

Pedersen has had a tough year so far. He crashed in the Tour of Valencia and was badly battered. The Danish star saw his spring season in jeopardy, but he did everything he could to make it to the classics. He pulled it off brilliantly. There’s one thing you can be sure of about the Lidl-Trek team leader: he can work hard like no other. A true training machine, and someone with unmatched drive.

He’s not a perfectionist, though. He uses a cup of coffee made by his wife as an example. “I could never go into that kind of detail. I know other people are much better at perfectionism than I am. That’s why I have no problem leaving the training planning to my coaches. I just do what he says. I believe that what he does is perfect.”

But the drive was there from an early age. Pedersen remembers his first race. He quickly learned an important lesson. “I won it right away, and I thought, ‘I’m the best. I’m the champion,’” he laughs. “My father told me to calm down. It was just a local race, with three clubs. But a week later, we went to an official race. In a 12-kilometer race, I lost six minutes.”

On his ride with Stephens, the Dane climbs the Col de la Madone, a famous training climb starting from Nice. It’s not a climb Pedersen does very often. “I know Tadej Pogacar holds the KOM here. Normally, I still have four kilometers to go once he’s reached the top. To keep my own morale up, I often stay away from places where he’s set records. He’s on a whole different level.”

Pogacar has often been a thorn in Pedersen’s side. The Slovenian has snatched many a victory in a Monument right from under his nose. In this year’s Paris-Roubaix, Pedersen was dropped by the world champion. “I was putting out 750 watts—on the cobbles, on the flat. I said, ‘This can’t be possible. You have to outlast him!’ But then: boom. They say you have to race smart to beat Tadej. But good luck with that, buddy.”

The dream of winning Roubaix is still very much alive for the former world champion. Without Pogacar, that would be a slightly easier task, but he doesn’t regret racing in the Pogacar/Van der Poel/Van Aert era. “When people ask me if I hate racing during the same era as someone like Pogacar, I say no. It’s great. But the day I hopefully beat him in a Monument someday will be even better.”

Pedersen is someone who does his own thing. For example, he never trains at altitude, even though Lidl-Trek often tries to convince him to. But he’s unshakable. “You’re at altitude for 3.5 weeks, then you have the Dutch National Championships and the Tour. That means you’re gone for two months. I don’t get to see my wife and family then, but I can handle that. But I don’t want to see my f*cking teammates for two months,” he laughs. “I love those guys, but at some point you just need a break.”

That mental peace is absolutely essential. Because cycling is incredibly tough. The Dane is also well aware of the physical dangers. And he’s not even thinking about the crashes. “What we do isn’t healthy. Sports are healthy—up to a certain point. The only good thing about what we do is that we motivate others to exercise too. But do I hope my kids will become professional cyclists someday? Absolutely not.”

Jonas Vingegaard shares that view as well. The two-time Tour winner is thinking primarily of his own crashes. “He has his opinions, and I have mine. But for me, it’s not about the danger. It’s about how you’re destroying your own body. It’s not healthy. If I could make that decision for my kids, I’d know exactly what to do. Just go play badminton or tennis.”