Mads Pedersen Abandons Tour de France, Leaves Pothole in Lidl-Trek's Plans

Mads Pedersen will not start stage 8 of the Tour de France, Lidl-Trek officials confirmed Saturday morning.

The Danish stage-hunter ace crashed hard in the midst of a chaotic sprint earlier this week and hasn’t been able to shake off his injuries.

“Unfortunately Mads Pedersen will not be on the start line of Tour de France Stage 8 after being forced to abandon the race following the crash in the bunch sprint on Stage 5 into Saint Vulbas,” read a statement from the team Saturday morning.

“The Danish rider fought through stages 6 and 7 but the pain and swelling has not improved and the range of moment in his left shoulder has worsened, making it almost impossible to handle the bike,” Lidl-Trek wrote.

Pedersen slammed hard into the barriers and clattered to the tarmac in the seconds before Mark Cavendish blitzed to his historic win on Wednesday’s fifth stage into Saint-Vulbas.

Only a sensational bunny hop by the following Alex Zingle prevented pile-up carnage in the high-speed finale.

Pedersen wobbled his way to the finish and has since been wrapped up in gauze and gutting it out at the back of the bunch.

“While the initial X-rays showed no sign of a fracture, together with the team, the decision was made that it was in Mads’ best interest to stop racing in order to undergo more detailed examinations to assess his injuries further and give him the proper rest and recovery needed to focus on his remaining goals,” read the team statement.

Losing Pedersen is a kick to the guts for Lidl-Trek.

The team’s Tour was already tilted on its axis the week before the grand départ when marquee new signing and GC hope Tao Geoghegan Hart pulled out of the race with the hangovers of COVID and a recent rib fracture.

Pedersen won stages at both his past two Tours de France and reaped victories from recent raids on the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.

If fit, the 28-year-old would have made hay through the Tour’s transitional style second week.

“It is a big bummer to lose Mads like this, after having lost Tao [Geoghegan Hart] before the start,” Lidl-Trek manager Luca Guercilena said Saturday.

“That said, we will still be in the game with Ciccone and we will work out a Plan B to race aggressively.”

Pedersen will now be looking for some rapid recovery before he lines out at the Paris Olympic Games, where he and Mattias Skjelmose will lead a Danish assault on the road race on August 3.