Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) has ended his very successful 2025 season early, with illness forcing him out of his last two planned races at the Münsterland Giro and European Championships.
Lidl-Trek announced the news on Friday ahead of the 1.pro race in Germany's start, so Pedersen will now settle into recovery and the off-season, starting his gradual build-up to 2026.
"Unfortunately, after a long and successful racing season, Mads Pedersen has been taken out of action by illness," read a post from Lidl-Trek.
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"He will therefore miss both Münsterland Giro and the European Championship this weekend and end his racing season. Get well soon, Mads!"
Pedersen has had a busy schedule these past nine months, with two Grand Tours, a full Classics block and more than 70 race days. He has taken 14 victories, equalling the third highest total of any rider this season, including seven at WorldTour level.
The Dane kicked things off with a victory at the Tour de la Provence back in February, before backing it up with a stage win at Paris-Nice, then a successful defence of his title at Gent-Wevelgem in dominant solo fashion.
While a Monument win continued to elude the former World Champion, Pedersen again proved he was among the most elite riders in the Classics, finishing seventh at Milan-San Remo, second at the Tour of Flanders and third at Paris-Roubaix.
As he switched his focus to the Grand Tours, Pedersen stormed to success at the Giro, winning three of the first five stages after the Albanian start, leading the race, and going on to take the maglia ciclamino points classification victory and one more stage.
Pedersen then entered the Danish block of his season, with Lidl-Trek favouring Jonathan Milan's sprint ambitions at the Tour de France instead. The Dane won his national time trial title and again dominated his home Tour of Denmark stage race.
At his second Grand Tour of the season at the Vuelta, Pedersen took longer to get amongst the victories, but did eventually get his win on stage 15 en route to another points jersey victory in Spain. Added to his win at the Giro and Milan's green jersey in the Tour de France, this confirmed Lidl-Trek's monopoly of all the points jerseys in cycling's three-week stage races.
As it stands, Pedersen is currently in third place in the UCI points ranking, behind only Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), whom he was due to support at the upcoming European Championships on Sunday.
In 2026 Pedersen will continue to lead Lidl-Trek at both the Classics and Grand Tours, having signed a 'lifetime' deal to see out the rest of his career on the US-registered WorldTour squad.
