Mads Pedersen dominated in a historic victory at Gent-Wevelgem, becoming the second successive men's winner in more than 30 years and the seventh member of the Club Trois.
Leading from 60km to go, the Lidl-Trek rider was unstoppable in his 50th professional win of his career and redeeming his disappointment after illness hampered his Milano San Remo campaign.
The Dane crossed the line comfortably ahead of the peloton chasing him down, with Tim Merlier (Soudal–Quick-Step) and Lidl-Trek teammate Jonathan Milan closing out the podium as the best of the rest.
“It is crazy; I never expected to be able to do something like this,” Pedersen said. “I’ve never been better than now, and my recent performances confirm this. I was still fighting with just 1km left, and I know from experience how fast the race is in the final 5km, so I never felt safe.”
How it happened
The Belgian cycling Classics continued with Gent-Wevelgem, and despite notable absentees, the start list was stacked with powerful sprinters and fan favourites who would be taking on the 250.3km race from Ypres to Wevelgem.
The first break of the race came with 219km to go, as nine riders made a three-minute gap over the peloton, including Rui Oliveira (UAE Emirates XRG), Max Walker (EF Education–EasyPost), Sam Maisonobe (Cofidis), Jasha Sutterlin (Jayco–AlUla), Emils Liepins (Q36.5), Victor Vercouillie (Flanders–Baloise), TotalEnergies pair Alexys Brunel and Samuel Leroux, and Marco Haller (Tudor), contributing to a fast start to the race, covering 45km in the first hour alone.
Into the second hour of the monument-length race and with 155km remaining, the peloton split in four due to the windy conditions, with 32 riders in the first echelon, including four Lidl-Trek and five Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe riders.
The windy conditions led to Pedersen’s first attack, and was joined by Huge Page (Intermarché-Wanty), Stefan Bissegger (Decatlon- AG2R La Mondiale) and Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ) who tried to escape from the first echelon, but they were quickly caught again on the Beauvoordestraat, the first cobbled sector of the race.
With 114km to go, the nine-man front group had been reeled in due to the fast racing of the now fractured peloton, however, they still managed to maintain an advantage of over a minute, but that was reducing quickly.
The crucial shift in the race at 105km remaining saw the nine-man break only 23 seconds ahead of the peloton, followed by chase group 38 seconds behind them, including Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen. Merlier and Philipsen gradually reduced the gap and moved to the front of the peloton
But tensions rose again with 100km to go as a crash involving Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling), Bert Van Lerberghe (Soudal Quick-Step), and others, caused the breakaway to gain over a minute advantage.
On the first of three Kemmelberg ascents, the front of the peloton turned on the gas, and a group including Biniam Girmay (Intermarché–Wanty), Florian Vermeersch (UAE Emirates XRG), Toms Skujins (Lidl–Trek), Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers) and Tiesj Benoot (Visma–Lease a Bike) broke free with under 80km remaining.
On the Plugstreets, Mads Pedersen attacked the gravel with Philipsen and Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) following him, but both failed to stay in touch as Philipsen suffered a puncture and Kooji crashed out, ending the latter’s race.
As Oliveira, Campenaerts, Walker, Brunel, and Haller remained part of the first breakaway group, Pedersen chased them down and on the Kemmelberg, the Dane found his way to the front of the race. Campenaerts launched counterattacks, but they were no match for Pedersen's climbing dominance, which he exhibited in his Stage 6 victory at Paris-Nice only a few weeks before.
Now solo, Pedersen pressed on, creating a 30 second advantage over a Campenaerts-Livyns-Haller trio and a 1 minute 30 second lead ahead of the peloton and continued to open a dangerous advantage as the climbs continued to come.
With 25km remaining, the Campenaerts group was caught which meant Pedersen led the race alone ahead of a reformed peloton.
Despite the peloton’s best efforts, Pedersen maintained a 1 minute 30 second advantage over the field which was only reduced by 10 seconds as they headed into the final 10km with his 50th career victory seemingly in the bag.
Pedersen closed out his historic victory in a dominant fashion, on his own from 58km still to go, while Merlier won the peloton sprint finish, and Milan finished third to give Lidl-Trek their second podium spot.
