Lidl-Trek

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was always seen as a promising junior and U23 rider but he truly burst onto the WorldTour scene in 2018 when he finished a surprise second in the Tour of Flanders. He followed that result by winning the UCI Road World Championships in Harrogate, England, in 2019.

Pedersen joined the WorldTour with Trek-Segafredo in 2017 and has racked up wins in Gent-Wevelgem and Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne since donning the rainbow jersey. Not just a one-day specialist, Pedersen has used his durability and fast finish to win three stages in the Vuelta a España and two stages in Paris-Nice. He took his maiden Tour de France stage win in 2022.

In 2023 Pedersen won a stage each in the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. He also won a stage in Paris-Nice and finished third in the Tour of Flanders.

Mads Pedersen

Tech

Pro Bikes

Tour de France pro bike: Mads Pedersen’s custom-painted Trek Madone

 is the place to be. It’s always a hotbed for the hottest new tech, from new bikes and components to custom setups.

It’s equally as common to see custom paint jobs, but it’s rare that we find ones that stand out from the crowd quite as much as 

’s custom-painted Trek Madone SLR 9 Gen 7. 

 are sporting new kits for the 2023 Tour de France and they’ve teamed them up with custom-painted bikes too.

Each rider had the opportunity to customise their own bike's paintwork and Pedersen’s was far from the only eye-catching design, but Simon Richardson thinks it just edges the rest in the race to be the most bling bike at this year’s Tour de France.

The iridescent design is made possible by Trek’s in-house Project One service where the American brand will custom-paint a bike to any specifications. Having seen the bikes the Lidl-Trek team are riding, we’re big fans of their work.

The Trek Madone SLR 9 Gen 7 that the paintwork adorns is equally as unique and garnered plenty of attention after last year’s launch thanks to its IsoFlow technology. It revamps the seat tube with what, to the untrained eye, appears to be a hole at the top of the tube with the seat post hovering above as if defying gravity. In reality, Trek says that it leads to aero gains and saves weight.

For his Tour de France setup, Pedersen opted for noticeably narrow 37cm handlebars with the shifters angled inwards, something that is becoming more common in the race for any aero advantage.

The bike we checked out was Pedersen’s training bike which had a standard chain and cassette. On his race bike these are both gold, something SRAM supplies to all of its current and former world champions.

Other notable features included a monster 56/43-tooth SRAM RED eTap AXS chainset and it’s paired with a wide 10-33t cassette to provide plenty of gears. You may be wondering whether the pros actually ever use the 56-10 combination at any point or whether the cassette and chainrings are picked for efficiency. Si posed the question to SRAM who - depressingly for us mortals - confirmed that they do.

Check out the full breakdown of components below.

Narrow Handle Bars, Perfect Bike Saddles & Chain Wax | GCN Tech Clinic

Are Super Strong Cyclists Killing Racing? | GCN Show Ep. 591

The 2024 Giro D'Italia Story So Far! | GCN Racing News Show

I Built A £17,000 Bike. WAS It REALLY Worth It?

Date	Event	Discipline	Classification
6/2/2024	Critérium du Dauphiné	Road	2.UWT
6/29/2024	Tour de France	Road	2.UWT
8/17/2024	Vuelta a España	Road	2.UWT
10/3/2024	Paris - Bourges	Road	1.1
10/6/2024	Paris - Tours	Road	1.Pro

Mads Pedersen

Race Program

Mads Pedersen's Bikes

Tour de France pro bike: Mads Pedersen’s custom-painted Trek Madone

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