Pedersen crushes time trial in Tour du Poitou-Charentes

Trek-Segafredo's Mads Pedersen stunned the peloton in the Tour du Poitou-Charentes, putting in a dominant performance in the stage 4 time trial to win by 26 seconds over the more established time trial specialist Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar).

The victory put the 21-year-old in a prime position for the overall victory with just one stage remaining, now with a 35 second buffer on the Spaniard.

"I had hoped for top 10 but to win was not something that I, or the team, expected," Pedersen said. "The course was not technical at all, two corners in the beginning and then three in the finale, otherwise it was just a power course, a little bit up and down, but nothing special. My feeling was really good; I was quite confident to do a top 10, and I hoped to do a time similar to [teammate] Matthias [Brändle].

"This means a lot, it's my first victory for the team – yes there was the Nationals, but the first with the whole team here. To win the TT and tomorrow start in the leader's jersey and actually have a chance to win the GC also is just incredible."

Pedersen averaged 52.783kph, setting a time of 23:25 on the course in Neuville-de-Poitou. Behind Castroviejo was Martin Elmiger and Jempy Drucker (BMC), over half a minute back. Overnight race leader Elia Viviani (Sky) was a distant 1:18 behind.

Pedersen now has to hang onto the peloton for the final 157.8km stage from Roumazières to Poitiers to seal the overall victory.

"I have not won a stage race since Juniors, so if this turns out to be a win tomorrow, it's huge thing for me and for sure one of the biggest victories of my career next to Nationals, so it will be pretty nice," Pedersen said. "Now, I believe in it, and as a team, we believe in it because we have been riding very strong together."

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