S12 Ep16: Mads as a March Hare

In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by former Classics stalwart Mitch Docker and the journalist Richard Abraham, as we look back at last weekend’s pre-Ronde van Vlaanderen appetisers, the E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem.

Friday saw the latest masterclass from Mathieu van der Poel in E3, which  underlined his status as the outstanding favourite for De Ronde. Forty-eight hours later, though, Mads Pedersen’s victory over Van der Poel in Gent-Wevelgem led some to wonder whether Lidl-Trek had happened upon the perfect blueprint for defeating the Dutchman - not that the strategy will be easy to implement on Sunday. 

In the final part of the podcast, we hear from a rider for whom just being on the startline on Sunday will represent a personal triumph - the Dane Michael Valgren, whose career was almost ended by a horror crash in the 2022 Route Occitanie. 

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The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.