Mads Pedersen said that despite being on his best level, there was simply no way of beating Mathieu van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix.
The Dane was part of the select group that formed prior to Van der Poel launching his Roubaix winning move. But once the world champion took off up the road, Pedersen said there was little he could do to respond.
"To be honest, I'm really happy," Pedersen said. "Mathieu was in a different league today and the way he was racing was really impressive. For me it's hard to beat Jasper [Philipsen] in a normal race in a sprint so, f**k, magic should happen if I were to beat him in a sprint at a race like today so I'm happy."
"I have zero excuses today," he added. "I was definitely at 100%, I was just beaten by better boys today."
Once Van der Poel took flight on the three star sector in Orchies, Pedersen explained that everyone within the group was fully aware of just how dangerous the move was. Van der Poel rapidly built up his advantage but showed no sign of relenting as the cobbles continued to arrive.
Pedersen buried himself in an attempt to reduce the deficit but, ultimately, his rivals' attack proved to be simply unanswerable. The Dane explained that once it became clear there was no way the group could bring him back, it then became a tactical game ahead of the sprint for the remaining podium places in the velodrome.
"At that point everyone was really on the limit so there was not a lot of chit chatting left," he explained. "Everyone was basically going flat out because we wanted to catch him again. At one point when he was just gaining time and gaining time, we were kind of doing a second race behind.
"We also wanted to reduce the selection in our group and make it smaller and smaller. Everyone was committed and going flat out thinking that maybe he [Van der Poel] has a puncture or whatever, so you never know – the race is not always over when he attacks but then today it was."
"We were still going all out," he added, reflecting on the closing stages of the race. "Philipsen went on the sector after Carrefour l’Arbre and then Kung got dropped so there were only three guys left. From then on, Jasper wanted to pull.
"At that moment I also knew that Jasper is a tough guy to beat and he also had a few kilometres in the wheel where we were pulling. So, it was also kind of settling in to sprint for third. I knew that Nils [Politt] was on the limit but so was I. But I trusted my sprint enough to know that it was possible to beat Nils at least.
"I think you saw the strongest in my group,” he added. “And then as I said, when Mathieu went everyone was going flat out because you don't want to give this guy 30 seconds, so we all tried. But he was just better than us today. I really don't know what else to say because we tried everything we could to beat him but it just wasn't possible."
Pedersen got the better of Van der Poel at Gent-Wevelgem, but he is still yet to better the Dutchman in a Monument. The Lidl-Trek star said he would have to think on a new strategy to get the better of the world champion in a Monument setting in the months ahead.
"You know at Flanders I think I raced with my head up my own ass,” he said. “Today I tried to do better but as I just said he was impressive, and I just couldn't follow. So, how to beat him in a Monument? I just don't know yet."
