Approaching the Monument which he says suits him the best, Mads Pedersen believes he is in a good position to challenge for Paris-Roubaix victory on Sunday.
The former world champion was involved in the same brutal crash as Wout van Aert at Dwars door Vlaanderen last week. He was left battered and bruised, but explained that he is almost fully recovered and ready to go again once more on Sunday.
"I feel pretty good," he told reporters on Friday as he reflected on last weekend's Tour of Flanders. "It's almost a week ago now so everybody is almost ready for the next race. Paris-Roubaix is a completely different race to Flanders, so this will be a different approach also. The main goal would be to make it to the velodrome with the first guys and to fight for the win and don’t let it all out too early.
"We’ve talked about it a lot of times and both Gent-Wevelgem and Roubaix definitely fit me better than Flanders does."
Pedersen is one of a handful of riders with the raw power and ability to be able to attack early in a Monument like Roubaix and then hold it to the finish. He explained that many of his tactical decisions will inevitably evolve on the road, and that reigning champion Mathieu van der Poel was not the only rider he would be focusing on if he makes the final selection.
"It's not a secret that [Jasper] Philipsen is a tough one to beat in a sprint," he said. "So I would of course prefer that he’s not there if he comes in a small group for a sprint. But all this to prefer this, this and this, it's all dream scenarios.
"The dream scenario will be to finish alone with two minutes and no stress that I can even puncture in the last 20 kilometres but it's not going to happen. So it's really hard to tell you exactly what the nicest thing would be."
The Arenberg chicane
Much of the talk in the build up to the race has focused around the introduction of a chicane into the entrance of the Arenberg cobbled sector. Race organiser ASO announced earlier this week that after consultation with the CPA riders union, the chicane was brought into the course in order to improve safety and reduce rider speed into the sector.
"It is what it is," Pedersen said. "They took the decision with only asking a few riders and not everyone. Now it's there, and now we have to deal with it. We can't change it anyway, we just have to take this little corner before the Arenberg."
However, Cycling Weekly understands that Pedersen’s entire Lidl-Trek team were one of the first to make contact with the CPA and race organiser regarding concerns about the sector in question. Pedersen's teammate, Tim Declerq, even told Het Laatse Nieuws that he was one of the first riders to contact ASO.
Pedersen was not the only one to suggest unhappiness with the chicane. Mathieu van der Poel questioned whether the decision was "a joke" on social media and said on Friday that it was "not the way to go".
It's understood that sports directors from both riders' teams knew about the introduction of the chicane after a meeting held at the Tour of Flanders, over a week before it was formally announced by ASO, and were briefed in order to make riders fully aware of the change.
Van der Poel explained that after speaking with Adam Hansen, the CPA president, he was left optimistic that the situation could be further improved in the future but was still not satisfied that the chicane was the best option this time round.
"I think coming from that direction already is a good solution, actually, from the road to the right," he said. "I've seen it because Adam Hansen texted me afterwards and I saw some options they have for the coming years, which look quite good.
"But now the chicane, in my opinion, is going to be even more dangerous."
"If you enter it in 20th position, you’ll be standing still and you’ll lose half a minute in the forest. I don't think it's the way to go. "But if the majority of cyclists and sports directors think it's better, I'll join them."
