Mads Pedersen achieves long-awaited victory with a sprint finish at Vuelta a España Stage 15
mads-pedersen-achieves-long-awaited-victory-with-a-sprint-finish-at-vuelta-a-espana-stage-15
#Mads #Pedersen #achieves #longawaited #victory #sprint #finish #Vuelta #España #Stage,
Mads Pedersen’s long-awaited win finally became a reality at the 2025 Vuelta a España Stage 15 as he sprinted ahead of other riders and clinched first place. The athlete riding for Lidl-Trek outpaced Orluis Aular of Movistar and Marco Frigo of Bahrain Victorious, who placed second and third, respectively. Unfortunately, Jay Vine of UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Louis Vervaeke of Soudal-QuickStep) failed to catch up and missed the top three spots.
With his victory, Pedersen expressed: “I really wanted to have a win and today we succeeded, so it’s amazing.”
The rider also explained how they worked as a team to achieve the win: “The way the team worked the whole day, five guys in the first group. When the two guys went away on the second KOM, they had a lot of time, and the boys were working so hard to make it possible.”
He shared that it is incredible that even when everyone knew their plan, they still succeeded in the race.
Highlights of the race
Stage 15 started with Jakub Otruba having a strong solo lead. Then, a chase group which included Jay Vine and Mads Pedersen tried to catch his pace. Vine and Otruba stayed ahead but were caught by a larger group of riders before the next climb.
A number of 40 riders then raced together and had a lead of over three minutes from the peloton. With 100km to go, Vine and Louis Vervaeke were leading, and the peloton trailed by over nine minutes but kept losing time.
Moreover, the chase group led by Movistar and Lidl-Trek teams went close in on the leaders near the end. With 30km left, the lead was now under 20 seconds, and Pedersen led the pack into the final kilometers.
In the last 2 km, riders started attacking, and Pedersen won the sprint finish.
Here is the final ranking of the athletes after the Stage 15 race:
- Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) in 04:02:13
- Orluis Aular (Movistar)
- Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech)
- Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious)
- Edward Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla)
- Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)
- Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step)
- Jay Vine (Emirates-XRG)
- Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) all same time
- Alex Segaert (Lotto) +23s
Here is the general classification ranking after the Stage 15 race:
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in 57:35:33
2. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +48s
3. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) +2:38
4. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +3:10
5. Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +3:30
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +4:21
7. Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) +4:53
8. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) +5:46
9. Junior Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step) +5:49
10. Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) +6:33
On social media, Pedersen shared: “This win is for my hard-working teammates! – Today, we showed how teamwork makes the dream work! 🤩”
Netizens expressed their support. One commented: “Hats off, Mads! 👏 Great to see the hard work paying off. Strong team performance! (translated)”
Another netizen declared that the athlete makes extremely difficult things look easy, and acknowledged that the whole team was fantastic.