Mads Pedersen is the youngest CULT Energy Pro Cycling member and at the age of 19, he’s set to participate in his second Tour of Denmark starting this Tuesday. The loyal all-rounder has a clear perspective of the target.

“The most important thing for me is that the team prevails. Hopefully with a spot on the podium overall and I’d be happy to help and support in order to achieve that goal. It requires some solid teamwork but I think we have a strong line-up and I think the rest of the team are as motivated and hungry for racing as I am.”

While most professional riders tend to do long training camps in sSuthern Europe, Pedersen has had a different approach:

“I chose to stay home and I have trained mostly on my own except from the days where I had some pacing. I’ve done a lot of kilometers and I went to the northern part of Denmark for a week to inspect the two first stages of the race. Actually, I did both stage one and two on my own and they are both very difficult and harder than most people expect. Especially the stage to Aarhus due to the long distance and quite a lot of climbing considering the Danish landscape,” says Pedersen.

“Last year, I was working extremely hard in the first stages as we had the leader’s jersey and I remember it changed my form completely and I was a much stronger rider after the race. Hopefully, I’m stronger on the start line this year. Throughout this spring, I have raced a lot of long and hard races and I hope it pays off now,” Pedersen concludes.