Portugal’s reigning national road champion Ruben Guerreiro is his team’s best chance of upsetting the Tour Down Under peloton
DENMARK’S reigning national road champion Mads Pedersen is grateful to swap the Australian sun for the dreary hotel rooms and a winter pre-season in Mallorca of Spain.
Tour Down Under
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tour Down Under. Followed categories will be added to My News.
DENMARK’S reigning national road champion Mads Pedersen is happy to swap the Australian sun for the dreary hotel rooms and a winter pre-season in Mallorca of Spain.
Now he is where he wants to be at the Tour Down Under, the 22-year-old believes his team Trek-Segafredo can surprise the favourites in the 20th edition of the race.
Although Pedersen wrote off his chances of winning anything, he claimed that won’t stop him working overtime for his team’s key men.
The team is stacked with enough quality to spring shock results over its fancied opponents.
Ruben Guerreiro, 23, is Portugal’s reigning national road champion and perhaps the team’s best chance of upsetting the entire peloton at the Tour Down Under — if Trek-Segafredo can keep an eye on Australia’s inform men.
“It’s too early for me (in the season),’’ Pedersen said.
“My shape is not good enough for the climbs, so a guy like our Portuguese Ruben (Guerreiro) he is here, he is super strong and ready for this, it’s more him we’re going for and I will do some of the sprints.”
Japanese Fumiyuki Beppu, 34, will make his first appearance at the Tour Down Under along with Dane Niklas Eg who will also me making his debut for the US registered team.
Pedersen says he is enjoying a solid week of training in SA with the team doing a double session — five hours on the bike on Saturday — after skipping a session on Friday due to the unpredictable weather.
“In Denmark it’s 5C now and yeah we’re getting used to the heat here, it’s been very good training here,’’ Pedersen said.
“Also driving on the lefthand side (rather than the right in Europe).
“I’ve had a good week of training.”
Pedersen also revealed Trek-Segafredo scouted stage 4 of the Tour Down Under — the Norwood to Uraidla 128.2km stage — on Friday.
“We did the entire fourth stage,’’ Pedersen said.
“I just followed the other guys but we did that more for Ruben (Guerreiro) he wanted to see it.
“Our sports director (Kim Andersen) thought it would also be a good idea and we just followed.”
Pedersen will return to Denmark after the Australian race to train hard for 20 days before heading to Belgium and a full spring classics program before tackling the Giro D’Italia in May.
Trek Segafredo was at the end of last year ranked fifth in the UCI’s WorldTour behind leader, Great Britain’s Team Sky.
Originally published as Portugal’s reigning national road champion Ruben Guerreiro is his team’s best chance of upsetting the Tour Down Under peloton