Pedersen wins opening stage at Critérium du Dauphiné
It was mission accomplished for Lidl-Trek on the opening stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné after starting the day with a clear plan: to go all-in for Mads Pedersen.
Denmark's Mads Pedersen won the opening stage of the Tour de France warm up race the Criterium du Dauphine on a foggy 172km run on Sunday.
The 2019 world champion also takes the yellow jersey after his ninth win so far this season in a week he was named in Denmark's Olympic Games team.
The Lidl Trek rider edged Sam Bennett and Hugo Page in a mass sprint, one of two flat stages on the eight-day race seen as a fine tuning opportunity ahead of the Tour de France later this month.
Pedersen said afterwards, "You can't complain when you win. Of course, we will look into the details. We want to make it perfect every time and if we can learn from today, we will definitely do it but this is as close to perfect as it gets so I am super happy with the boys. My last race was Paris-Roubaix so it's been a long time of training and racing is just different so I am really happy with this win especially as we only have two chances here as sprinters so it's pretty nice to start this week by getting the sprint train right. I am just really happy that we worked this well together today.
"I think tomorrow is too hard in the final, and now being in the lead of the race I don’t think anyone will let me in the break. I think tomorrow we’ll control to respect the jersey and we also have one GC guy here, Tao, that we have to take care of, and that’s my job until Stage 5.
"It's always nice to wear a yellow jersey, of course. I tried in Paris-Nice already, now here, and so the next goal should be the Tour at one point."
VIDEO: 2024 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 1 Highlights
2024 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 1 Top 10
1 PEDERSEN Mads Lidl - Trek 4:01:30
2 BENNETT Sam Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 0:00
3 PAGE Hugo Intermarché - Wanty 0:00
4 VENTURINI Clément Arkéa - B&B Hotels 0:00
5 DOULL Owain EF Education - EasyPost 0:00
6 GAZZOLI Michele Astana Qazaqstan Team 0:00
7 GARCÍA CORTINA Iván Movistar Team 0:00
8 WRIGHT Fred Bahrain - Victorious 0:00
9 RUSSO Clément Groupama - FDJ 0:00
10 CORT Magnus Uno-X Mobility 0:00
