Momentum is a powerful thing in cycling. Once the ideal condition is reached and then sharpened, the form is there and then maintained, and rivals sense superiority and then fear, it’s hard to stop the momentum from doing its thing. And so it’s proving again: after a winter and spring that brought Mads Pedersen four victories, podium places in both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, and two points jerseys, the Lidl-Trek rider has begun the Giro d’Italia precisely how his condition, form and rivals said he would: on top.
Set up expertly by an incessant pace from his teammate Giulio Ciccone that thinned out the peloton on the final climb of stage one just outside the Albanian capital of Tirana, Pedersen outsprinted Wout van Aert to the line to claim the 108th edition's first maglia rosa. There was a time, even just last year, when fortunes almost certainly would have been reversed, Van Aert pipping Pedersen instead of the other way round. But how momentum swings the balance; now it’s Pedersen who’s the top dog, the rouleur-cum-sprinter who can handle most things thrown his way.
“It’s one of the biggest races in the world, so to have the leader’s jersey in a race like this, it’s really amazing,” Pedersen said afterwards. “It’s the cherry on the cake from the stage win, and it’s absolutely amazing to be able to say I have the pink jersey. Winning in a Grand Tour is super special, and especially with a jersey on top, it makes it even more special. It makes me proud.”
The lumpy finale, with a finishing climb that reared up into double-digit gradients at times, was the sort of parcours that Pedersen has regularly thrived on: too difficult for the pure sprinters, but too easy to tempt the GC cohort to have a go. The Dane was among the favourites, but he’s never one to be certain of success. “It’s never a given that you’re going to win a race because there are so many strong riders in this peloton and everyone is in top shape, so if you are confident when the race starts, maybe it backfires,” he said. “And you know in a sprint like this with Wout in the group, you have to treat that with respect as he can also win the race.”
Yet – and this is the crucial part – there’s only Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel who have been performing better than him in 2025. The result in Tirana was what ought to have happened. “When you win, it’s clear that the plan went to perfection,” he went on. “We had a clear plan today, we wanted to make the race hard, and everything worked out. We wanted to keep such a high pace, it is why Ciccone took over. When he goes that fast, if you want to attack from that, it’s really chapeau to you. The GC guys don’t win the Giro today, and I would have been surprised if they wanted to attack, and especially with the tempo that Cicco did, they didn’t because he was riding that fast. After the team has worked like that, it’s nice to give them the victory.”
Stage two of the race is a 13.7km time trial in the centre of Tirana, an otherwise flat test against the clock aside from a testing one kilometre climb at the midway point. It’s not inconceivable that a powerhouse like Pedersen could maintain his lead of 10 seconds over the GC favourites like Primož Roglič and Juan Ayuso. “I can do a good short TT,” he said. “I will do my absolute best to keep and honour the jersey, but there are so many guys within time of me who are able to get the jersey, GC riders who are super good on TTs. Me and [teammate Mathias] Vacek will do our best to keep the jersey in the team.”
Should Pedersen cede pink, he’ll be back later at the front of the race. Because that’s what momentum does: it keeps propelling you to victories. “When you start with a win on stage one, you can’t sit back and enjoy the next 20 days,” he said. “We’re here to keep trying, to win as much as possible. I’m happy to start like this, it’s absolutely amazing, and I’m hungry for more. We’ve worked really hard to be in shape for this race, so we don’t sit up now. We keep fighting.”
