Heading into this year's Paris-Roubaix, former world champion Mads Pedersen was perhaps the only rider in the peloton spoken in the same breath as top favourites Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
It's no surprise, then, that the Dane joined the two on the podium at the end of the 259km Monument, having once again sprinted from a chase group behind winner Van der Poel to clinch a second third-place finish in a row.
He'd cross the line in Roubaix 2:11 down on the flying Dutchman, but his race may have turned out differently – and perhaps even better – but for an untimely puncture.
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The Lidl-Trek leader fell victim to Paris-Roubaix's famed misfortune at 71km from the line on the four-star Tilloy à Sars-et-Rosières sector, having made a select front group including his future podium companions, plus Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Stefan Bissegger (Decathlong AG2R La Mondiale).
A front wheel flat struck early on the 2.4km sector, forcing him to drop back from the five-man group and towards the chasers. He wouldn't see the front of the race again. But despite the bad luck, Pedersen refused to wonder what might've been in the post-race press conference.
"I also don't want to give any if, and if, and if. I was unlucky and had a puncture in a really bad moment. It is what it is," he said after the finish, noting that everything had gone right until that fateful moment on sector 8.
"I felt really good, I had a good feeling," Pedersen added. "The team did impressive work the whole day to keep me out of problems, getting into sectors in a good position, and pulling at the right moments and so on. Everything went really well until that moment."
Having dropped back to join a group including Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), whom he'd outsprint to grab third place, he quickly readjusted his goals for the race, ready to battle for whichever positions remained on offer.
"I just think it's something you need to do. When it's gone like this, you need to make your head ready for something else," he said.
"Even in that moment when you're not even racing for a podium, in this race you never know what happens and if you keep fighting you can end up on the podium anyway."
Headwind
Despite the strong sprint to finish the day after five-and-a-half hours of racing, Pedersen admitted that he didn't feel as though he was the strongest man in the chase group.
With a headwind blowing on the run to Roubaix, Pedersen sought to limit his efforts before the finish, aiming to recover before one last push for a podium place.
"I definitely didn't have the feeling that I was the strongest. I wanted them to pull on the cobblestone sectors because the cobbles in the last 15 to 20 kilometres were basically a headwind," he said.
"I needed to recover, so I tried to let them do the work, but it also sounded like they wanted to attack on shift in the end. So, I tried to keep a high tempo and hope my sprint was strong enough to beat them, and it was."
With a Gent-Wevelgem victory under his belt, in addition to podiums here, at the Tour of Flanders, and the E3 Saxo Classic, Pedersen can look back on his spring with satisfaction.
He's had his fill of fighting with Van der Poel and Pogačar for another year though, he joked.
"I look forward to not racing against these two guys. They start to be there every time," he said. "I enjoy the moments when we're fighting against each other, but I don't expect it to be every time.
"Mathieu and Tadej are also going to the Tour but it's going to be a completely different approach for all of them so you will not see the same fight as you have now.
"Everyone has to accept and enjoy that this time of the year is when you see these fights and you have to wait another 12 months to see them again."
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