Mads Pedersen had already mathematically secured the Giro d'Italia ciclamino points jersey two days ago. But on stage 21, the Dane officially won the points classification and capped off a highly successful Giro for Lidl-Trek.
As well as Pedersen's ciclamino triumph, the team won six stages with three different riders – four for Pedersen, one apiece for Daan Hoole and Carlos Verona – marking the team's most successful Grand Tour in recent memory. To make it even more exceptional, Pedersen himself also led the Giro for five days, too, during the first week before losing it on stage 7's summit finish to Tagliacozzo to Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
This is the Dane's second sprints jersey victory, after taking the equivalent title at the Vuelta a España in 2022, and a comeback from when he targeted the classification in the 2023 Giro but had to abandon the race.
Though Lidl-Trek lost GC rider Giulio Ciccone in the second week – he still came to Rome to celebrate with the team – they'll leave the Giro more than contented.
"We didn't have the time of our lives but we had a really good time," Pedersen said after stage 21.
"We have six stage victories and the ciclamino jersey, it's incredible. Not a lot of teams will ever be able to do this, so for us this is absolutely insane to be able to do it."
Prior to this race, Pedersen had six Grand Tour stage wins to his name, and bolstered that up to 10 over three weeks in Italy, beating his personal record by winning four stages in a single Grand Tour. That, and his pursuit of intermediate sprints even in the hardest stages, earned him the ciclamino jersey with a healthy margin of 110 points over Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike).
This year, Pedersen will skip the Tour de France, where he's won two stages, with Lidl-Trek opting for Jonathan Milan in France instead. Whilst that may have initially seemed like a disappointment, Pedersen has seized the opportunity at the Giro, where early wins allowed Lidl-Trek to race more aggressively.
"I've always liked the races like this, the Giro and the Vuelta. The Tour is really stressful and it takes a lot of attention and pressure, not only from ourselves but also from management and sponsors and so on," he explained.
"While here, there's a bit more freedom and you can play around a bit. Okay, we were also lucky, in the first five days we already had three victories and of course that helps to make it more free, to play around and try what we want. But I really enjoy it as well."
Prior to stage 21, Pedersen told the media that he didn't want to risk it in the sprint in Rome, but he did end up mixing it in the final dash for the line, eventually taking fourth.
"It's one of these days, I was not really willing to risk it to win, but I ended up in a good position in the last corner. To be honest I didn't have the legs to pass Kooij in the sprint or even open the sprint," he said.
"I just found myself in the wheel and opened the sprint in his wheel and then stayed there until we passed the finish line. In the end, no risk today and I'm here still today with all my skin and that's successful."
That meant there was no sitting up and celebrating across the line, arm in arm with his teammates, but Pedersen was clear that he did want to celebrate what Lidl-Trek had achieved to the full.
As he put it,"I know this is not the Tour, and this is not the pink jersey or anything like that. But with the race we've had I think we can give ourselves a big round of applause and be proud of what we did."
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