A broken collarbone, and perhaps more worryingly, a broken wrist: exactly how competitive can Mads Pedersen expect to be when the first big races on his own personal calendar roll around in six weeks’ time?
The Dane is slated to ride Milan-San Remo on March 21, before going on to race at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. But after crashing hard in yesterday’s Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana his whole Spring campaign has been put in jeopardy. Adding insult to injury, it was his first race of the season – and he didn’t even get to finish.
The standard recovery time for a collarbone break is around six weeks, but wrist fractures can be more complex and require a longer recovery time – especially for a cyclist who is required to grip the handlebars and especially in races such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, with brutal cobblestones that require every ounce of grip strength and control.
