It’s not easy to reach cycling’s upper echelons, and it’s even harder to stay there. But for the past four years at least, Mads Pedersen has mastered that task.

Wins in all three Grand Tours and big victories in the Classics, the Lidl-Trek rider would almost certainly have several Monuments on his palmarès if it weren’t for Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel, with the Dane having finished on the podium of either Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix in each of the last three years.

“I would say when I won the World Championships [aged 23 in 2019] I still had a lot to improve on, I was still up and down with my form and not there every time like I am now, but in the last four years I’ve been up there and been a lot more steady,” the 29-year-old told Cycling Weekly on the eve of the Giro d’Italia.

This article was published by Cycling Weekly during the 2025 Giro d’Italia. You can read the full story here.