Mads Pedersen takes Vuelta victory in chaotic sprint finish
Mads Pedersen takes Vuelta victory in chaotic sprint finish
This story first appeared on VeloNews.com.
After several close calls, Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) stormed to his first stage win of this year’s Vuelta a España on the uphill finish into Montilla on stage 13.
It was a chaotic finale with several different teams taking over the pace-setting in the final few hundred meters. Pascal Ackerman (UAE Team Emirates) tried to get the jump on his rivals as he launched his sprint going around the final corner.
However, Ackerman faded as Pedersen charged past to win by a convincing margin. Meanwhile, Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) also passed Ackerman in the finale to take second with the German eventually finishing in third.
Race leader Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) kept a cool head during stage and finished safely within the pack.
“We knew that the final was super good. The boys did super good today and everybody was focused for the whole day. I’m just happy that I can finally get the win and give back to the boys for the work that they’ve already done so far. It’s really nice for all of us,” Pedersen said at the finish.
“Alex delivered me into the last corner, but there was still 800m to go, so it was good that [Jumbo-Visma] made a really hard tempo, and Pascal he jumped early. It meant that I could jump with him but it was a long sprint. To follow Ackerman is also a full sprint so it was a 330-meter sprint today.
“We came here for a stage win and now we have one so we keep fighting for one more. It’s super nice to have a comfortable lead in the points jersey, but it would still have been nice to have Sam [Bennett] here to keep fighting for the jersey. We will keep fighting for the stages and we will see how it goes.”
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