Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2025, Stage 4: Susa – Voiron (206.7k)

[Mayomaniac]

Back to the important news, Nico Vino in the stage top 30 and ahead of Pidcock, incoming Tiger Nico hype!

 

[Tricycle Rider]

George Bennet quiet vocal there
in his interview

What did he say? I know he was involved in a crash again today...

 

[TourOfSardinia]

What did he say? I know he was involved in a crash again today...

Sh*t three full gas crashes in a week ... etc

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Sh*t three full gas crashes in a week ... etc

Unfortunately he's not wrong, so I can understand some frustration on his part.

 

[Andre]

Is Jasper in the green jersey now?

 

[pastronef]

Is Jasper in the green jersey now?

no, Mads is in green

 

[King Of The Wolds]

I'm I the only one who thought Turner's sprint deviation was a little borderline? 5 years ago, nobody would have batted an eyelid, but I bet the commies had a look.

 

[Red Rick]

I'm I the only one who thought Turner's sprint deviation was a little borderline? 5 years ago, nobody would have batted an eyelid, but I bet the commies had a look.

You're not the only one.

Then I realized Philipsen was 2nd and then it's never a relegation for me.

 

[Sciatic]

no, Mads is in green

Given the parcours he’s likely to stay there—unless Ving, Ciccone, Gaudu, et al. keep sprinting for every medium mtn finish

 

[Lequack]

Who wore it better?

 

[KZD]

Turner has really stepped up these last couple of months, biggest win of his career.

Both Pedersen and Philipsen don't seem at their best.

 

[Danskebjerge]

Søren Kragh Andersen hasn't had much success in this Vuelta so far. He failed to pull Mads to the front on stage 1 (according to himself), and today he almost crashed while he was leading the Lidl-Trek train. In both cases Mads Pedersen never got in contention for the stage win. Yesterday, he was criticised for riding too aggressively before the finishing climb.

Maybe he's a bit too eager/nervous to prove his worth? The team needs to get a successful leadout soon - Pedersen will find it hard to win the green jersey if he doesn't make it to the podium on any of the stages with a flat finish.

 

[Andre]

Turner has really stepped up these last couple of months, biggest win of his career.

Both Pedersen and Philipsen don't seem at th

Jasper was ok, he just got blocked by his own team-mate today

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'm I the only one who thought Turner's sprint deviation was a little borderline? 5 years ago, nobody would have batted an eyelid, but I bet the commies had a look.

They've brought in some commies? That makes sense, maybe they're urgently overseeing the inauguration of a statue of Lenin in Figueres to excuse the TTT.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

They've brought in some commies? That makes sense, maybe they're urgently overseeing the inauguration of a statue of Lenin in Figueres to excuse the TTT.

Soon as I posted that, I knew you'd be on it.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

What's wrong with Pedersen if I may be so blunt?

He's far from my absolute least favourite rider, but he represents a lot of what I don't like about the sport, similar to van aert.

I find that his presence at a race often makes the race worse. In the classics he will stupidly pull and waste energy when in a group with the strongest riders, which just helps those strong riders to win. His tactics are nonexistent.

Then you will have a potential interesting stage with hills, good for attacking racing, but if pedersen is there you will be sure that Lidl Trek closes everything and controls everything so he can do a sprint. You will have a guy like ciccone, an attacking riderin the form of his life, rising defensively because Mads pederson needs the team to go allin for him.

ANd then he will go to dominate a small race like Provence or Denmark tour which would be open without him.

He just annoys me. Like I say, he's not the worst of the worst

 

[Red Rick]

He's far from my absolute least favourite rider, but he represents a lot of what I don't like about the sport, similar to van aert.

I find that his presence at a race often makes the race worse. In the classics he will stupidly pull and waste energy when in a group with the strongest riders, which just helps those strong riders to win. His tactics are nonexistent.

Then you will have a potential interesting stage with hills, good for attacking racing, but if pedersen is there you will be sure that Lidl Trek closes everything and controls everything so he can do a sprint. You will have a guy like ciccone, an attacking riderin the form of his life, rising defensively because Mads pederson needs the team to go allin for him.

ANd then he will go to dominate a small race like Provence or Denmark tour which would be open without him.

He just annoys me. Like I say, he's not the worst of the worst

On top of that, he has repeatedly talked smack about how other riders are stupid while being the most braindead tactician out there.

 

[Unchained]

He's far from my absolute least favourite rider, but he represents a lot of what I don't like about the sport, similar to van aert.

I find that his presence at a race often makes the race worse. In the classics he will stupidly pull and waste energy when in a group with the strongest riders, which just helps those strong riders to win. His tactics are nonexistent.

Then you will have a potential interesting stage with hills, good for attacking racing, but if pedersen is there you will be sure that Lidl Trek closes everything and controls everything so he can do a sprint. You will have a guy like ciccone, an attacking riderin the form of his life, rising defensively because Mads pederson needs the team to go allin for him.

ANd then he will go to dominate a small race like Provence or Denmark tour which would be open without him.

He just annoys me. Like I say, he's not the worst of the worst

Wow it's like your post is about a completely different racer!! Mad Mads Pedersen has 59 wins!! Hundreds of top tens,
this year alone he has a bunch of wins, podiums and top tens from start to finish.. Guy has worked his butt off to do exactly what you are annoyed about, he makes selection happen or makes the selection and can work with some of the strongest because of all the work he has put in to improve his climbing.
You are critical of his tactics, valid, but the guy is not tiny and graceful,
instead he is a blunt force instrument. He is working hard to be the cycling equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife.
Guy is just all around good and certainly in a tiny elite group of wicked fast sprinters who can get up and over some moderate climbing.
I personally enjoy watching people work rather than do immediate calculations about who is riding with them in a group, and it's refreshing to see riders get in a break and take meaningful pulls and save all the chess moves for later. Mads' work ethic is what I love about him and working with anyone is dignified not a tactical miscalculation in my opinion.
29 years old, 59 wins, still morphing into an improved climber, I look forward to the future.
* and racing, winning, domination of race in your home country is an admirable quality in my humble opinion*

 

[CyclistAbi]

Turned out to be a grand tour stage winner after all.

 

[tobydawq]

He's far from my absolute least favourite rider, but he represents a lot of what I don't like about the sport, similar to van aert.

I find that his presence at a race often makes the race worse. In the classics he will stupidly pull and waste energy when in a group with the strongest riders, which just helps those strong riders to win. His tactics are nonexistent.

Then you will have a potential interesting stage with hills, good for attacking racing, but if pedersen is there you will be sure that Lidl Trek closes everything and controls everything so he can do a sprint. You will have a guy like ciccone, an attacking riderin the form of his life, rising defensively because Mads pederson needs the team to go allin for him.

ANd then he will go to dominate a small race like Provence or Denmark tour which would be open without him.

He just annoys me. Like I say, he's not the worst of the worst

So it's bad when he attacks and it's bad when he doesn't attack.

Could it be that you just decided on a whim that you didn't like him and now are contriving arguments to fit into your pre-made conclusion?

 

[Red Rick]

So it's bad when he attacks and it's bad when he doesn't attack.

Could it be that you just decided on a whim that you didn't like him and now are contriving arguments to fit into your pre-made conclusion?

Strange way to rephrase a perfectly clear position that he Pedersen is a net negative on small and big races alike.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

(..) still morphing into an improved climber,.

I think Mads proved his abilities on this matter already in 2020 during Le Tour deep into 3rd week Loze-stage, in rainbow jersey, pulling Porte to podium by delivering into final climb (Loze) after monster effort over Madeleine.

Afterwards he has helped Ciccione amonst other things outside his own comfort zone

So but OK, Mads has focused a little more on his climbing skills this year leading up to the Giro, but I don't expect anything more from him in that direction.

Personally I pretty much like the element of chaos of spontaneous Mad Mads decisions, both the wise and not least the less wise ones. Unlike other riders relying a 100% on radios and bullet frames to the obvious, which everyone can foresee.

More madness, please.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Im not the biggest of Pedersen fans at all, but I find it hard to dislike him. He more often than not races aggressively, sometimes even plain stupid, but thats no reason to dislike him IMO. Aggressive and overaggressive moves most often leads great racing.

And putting the blame on Mads Pedersen and Trek on todays stage is lame. Other teams are allowed to do something as well, but the peloton as a whole decided today was not worth it for whatever reason.

 

[Danskebjerge]

In the classics he will stupidly pull and waste energy when in a group with the strongest riders, which just helps those strong riders to win. His tactics are nonexistent.

I've criticised his tactical decisions many times. But recently I haven't seen him failing much. Maybe he has listened.

I agree that Lidl-Trek's dominance at the Tour of Denmark was bad for the race, but I don't see how the team could be blamed for this. The startlist was weak, and riders like De Lie and Cort who were strong in the 2024 edition weren't there to challenge Pedersen.

Besides, in order to score enough UCI points to match a top 10 spot in the one day race in Hamburg, he had to win a lot in Denmark.

I don't know how he should have handled it differently?

 

[Danskebjerge]

On top of that, he has repeatedly talked smack about how other riders are stupid while being the most braindead tactician out there.

That's not something I find typical about him. There has been an example of it, maybe two, but that's natural because he's quite honest. And funny. Like today, when he interrupts Vingegaard during an interview about the bike theft and offers him a Trek bike.

Do you prefer less talking riders like Vingegaard? I don't.