With former Alpecin rider and less bad luck, Pedersen targets Van der Poel: "I'm not saying he would have won, but..."

The Lidl-Trek leader has set Paris-Roubaix as his big goal in 2025. From his last day of racing last season, he put his sights on The Hell of the North. His coach, Mattias Reck, tells Ekstra Bladet that he can join the unbeatable ones. "Mads is on his way to get into the 'Super League,'" that is how the Swedish rider calls the group with Pogacar, Van der Poel, Van Aert, and Remco Evenepoel. "And that is our goal. We are aware that we may not possess the same talent as Wout and Mathieu, but you can still beat them if you ride smart in the races, and Mads is brilliant."

Although Pedersen has already become a world champion and won Gent-Wevelgem twice, a monument is still missing. "It pushes him tremendously. He wants to be a winner, and he wants to win big races." But he can't do that alone. "It is very important to have a strong team. and now we also have Søren (Kragh Andersen, ed.). So our classics team is outstanding. The level has never been so high." Lidl-Trek snatches Pedersen's compatriot away from Alpecin-Deceuninck: Van der Poel, therefore, misses an important helper for the spring.

This year could have already been a success for the former world champion, but the crash in the preparation threw everything out of whack. "If Mads hadn't crashed in Dwars door Vlaanderen, and we still had one or two helpers, the difference wouldn't have been so big for Van der Poel," the coach says of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. "I'm not saying Mads would have won, but he would have gotten closer. The way Roubaix looked now was almost boring. Next year will be different."