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The more i think of it, he is the rider who currently resembles Boonen the most imho. Definitely not a 1:1 in terms of ability, i think Boonen was a more natural cobbles rider, but Pedersen is a much better TT'er (it's something Boonen should have probably been better at had he ever cared about it) and a better climber when he wants to. Neither being pure sprinters, but maybe the fastest of non pure sprinters.
Well if you want to go down that route, Pedersen hasn't won a monument or a GT and even his World title was already 4 seasons ago. I can't see how he is on par with riders like Van Aert or Van der Poel currently and someone like Pogačar is obviously miles ahead of him despite never being World Champion.
Still, he is a great rider as I mentioned before, he could still win a monument and get the points jersey in every GT (if he does that maybe he gets on par with the two Van's).
Mathieu won a world championship ahead of Pedersen already 10 years ago
3rd fastest ever to do the Grand Slam... 9 days short of being the fastest.
He did it in 300 days, Bennati and Zabriskie in 291, Dumoulin in 315 days is the 4th fastest.
If I was the Trek management I would seriously consider pulling Pedersen early from the Giro, now that he got a stage win.
It may seem crazy as there are another 4-5 stages he could be in contetion for at the Giro, and he might even be in contention for the overall points competition,
BUT with a Tour that has 8-9 stages he will be in contention for, and thus also be a contender for green, as well as him wanting to work his ass off for Skjelmose in his Tour debut. AND a World Championship in Glasgow 2 weeks after the Tour, on a route he will definitely be a contender on as well. It might be wise for Trek to pull him in the next week or so, to avoid him running out of gas at the Tour or at Worlds.
We also have to remember he has had 23 race days already this season (38 race days at the end of the Giro), including a full cobbles season riding as a favourite. As a comparison Van Aert has had 12 race days and Van Der Poel has had 13 race days (and yes, I know it's a slightly skewed stat, because they did some cross in January, but still).
It's a gamble of course, "bird in the hand" and all that, as well as stronger competition at the Tour and Worlds...but all other things being equal, Green at the Tour and the rainbow jersey, are more important than the cyclamen jersey at the Giro.
It may seem crazy as there are another 4-5 stages he could be in contetion for at the Giro, and he might even be in contention for the overall points competition,
BUT with a Tour that has 8-9 stages he will be in contention for, and thus also be a contender for green, as well as him wanting to work his ass off for Skjelmose in his Tour debut. AND a World Championship in Glasgow 2 weeks after the Tour, on a route he will definitely be a contender on as well. It might be wise for Trek to pull him in the next week or so, to avoid him running out of gas at the Tour or at Worlds.
We also have to remember he has had 23 race days already this season (38 race days at the end of the Giro), including a full cobbles season riding as a favourite. As a comparison Van Aert has had 12 race days and Van Der Poel has had 13 race days (and yes, I know it's a slightly skewed stat, because they did some cross in January, but still).
It's a gamble of course, "bird in the hand" and all that, as well as stronger competition at the Tour and Worlds...but all other things being equal, Green at the Tour and the rainbow jersey, are more important than the cyclamen jersey at the Giro.
Coolest bike (paint) this year:
Mads is a beast in this narrow area of stages. Unfortunately for him his strengths are to be considered *niche* - hence sun, moon and stars need to align for him to win a monument or another WC. He may do it, but even so will never be considered a monumental force in his generation. Being much more consistent over years than Valgren or Asgreen will nationally make him a Great Dane though.
If he can maintain his form, he is a candidate in Glasgow in a month, and he will always be a candidate for Paris-Roubaix.
Lidl-Trek really need to sign one or even two northern classics guys to support the (repeat) world champ everyone wanted
Stuyven is somehow never around or unlucky or whatever when it goes down and the riders signed by the team so far are not going to be there either
Stuyven is somehow never around or unlucky or whatever when it goes down and the riders signed by the team so far are not going to be there either
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I agree here. I hoped that Trek was going to aim for being a best possible classics team, both in the cobbles and hilly classis, and if necessary at the expense of GC objetives. But right now they've signed both TGH and Milan for next year, so they seem to have both GC and mass sprints as objectives. I fear that they're speading their resources a bit too thin.
Oli Naesen is out of contract and would be a great gregario for Mads.
Signing TGH makes sense for Trek, they've always had an interest in GT GCs and with the Nibali and Porte experiments over and Mollema being an ex-GC rider (and just old in general) that leaves a hole to fill. Also, focusing only on the classics leaves you a marginal team for all of the season that isn't March or April. The Milan transfer, otoh, doesn't make that much sense as he isn't that complimentary to Pedersen - they don't have the riders to form two separate leadout trains either. Seems like Trek are gambling on Nys having a breakout spring next year and/or Stuyven returning to form to allow for the latter signing, which could definitely leave them falling short in both the classics and the sprints.
Naesen is completely finished. The only quality classics rider with no (known) contract for 2024 is Bettiol and I don't think Trek can afford him.
Well, first of all, TGH seems like a big gamble right at the moment.
And even if they aimed mostly for the classics, there is still much after March and April. Pedersen could go stage hunting in either of the GTs and the same applies for other riders. Pedersen could also be a contenders for the Benelux Tour. Skjelmose seems at least like a good one week rider and for the hilly classics in the fall. And other new signings could have done some of the same.
Well he is very much the discount version of Mads.
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