Mads Pedersen, winner of the 2nd stage of Paris-Nice: “A good sign for the classics”

“How did you experience this day?
It’s one of the worst endings you can have. These last ten kilometers of a straight line and a roundabout 500 meters from the finish… The problem was not the roundabout, which had a rather large curve, it was rather this long straight line where all the teams wanted to go back to the front, to reposition themselves. It also created a downfall (just before the red flame). Sometimes it’s more dangerous to have endings like that. It was like a washing machine. The team guys covered and placed me well, with Alex (Kirsch) which took me perfectly. I was in 4th or 5th position while some sprinters couldn’t be positioned. Sorry for the terms, but it was ****ing hard to race today.

This victorylike last year at Paris-Nice (3rd stage), does it give you confidence?
I came for that. It’s confirmation that I’m where I need to be in terms of form, capable of winning in the sprint. I do Milan – San Remo (March 18) and this victory is a good sign for the whole classics campaign.

You also take the Yellow Jersey…
To be honest, it’s secondary. It is of course important for the sponsor, especially since we have the same as the Yellow Jersey (Santini). It’s always good to have a race leader’s jersey but I know it’s only a parenthesis, it will then go to the closet.

How do you imagine Tuesday’s team time trialwhere the time will be taken on each rider and not on the 4th of the team?
It’s hard to answer… When you have a strong collective for team time trials, it’s a shame that only one rider has to finish. But for a team like ours, which is not among the best in this exercise, it may be a good thing to try, perhaps we can attempt suicide stints at the end and launch Mattias Skjelmose, who just have to sprint to the end. We will see tomorrow (Wednesday) whether it works, or not, but it’s kind of nice of the organizers to try different things. »