Denmark’s Mads Pedersen created a huge surprise when he emerged from a rain-drenched Yorkshire road race with cycling’s world title on Sunday.
The 23-year-old timed his last-gasp run to perfection to beat a devastated Italian Matteo Trentin and Swiss rider Stefan Kung in silver and bronze positions after 261km and over 6 hours and 27 minutes of exhausting racing.
“That’s an unbelievable day, I didn’t expect this morning,” said the Leopard-Trek team rider who won much as an under-23’s racer.
“It was just survive, survive, survive. Then hope for the best in the sprint,” said Pedersen, who was far from favourite to beat Italian 30-year-old Trentin, usually a crack in the sprints.
“When I saw the finish line I thought anything can happen,” he said.
