The Confirmation

24-year old Mads Pedersen had the most unfortunate reign in the Rainbow jersey imaginable. He only raced three times after winning the World’s last year and couldn’t finish a one of them. The Dane’s 2020 debut was similarly dispiriting, trailing at the back at the season-opener in Oz, followed by poor showings in the opening Semi-Classics, unable to finish Paris-Nice. Then came the plague and the shutdown of the season. He started back up where he’d left off at July’s Vuelta a Burgos, where his highest placing was 54th (his other places were 103rd, 108th and 146th) before again abandoning. Then, a spark: he won a in Poland, besting Pascal Ackermann in a sprint finish. The World Champion now looked to be coming into form with his second place on Stage One of the Tour de France. He then faded from view. Pedersen looked heavy to me, perhaps one of the many riders who didn’t deal well with the Corona virus restrictions, which obviously handicapped him given the explosive nature of the climbing-heavy Tour. But then, about halfway through, he again came to life. Pedersen started providing crucial support for his team leader Richie Porte, sometimes going deep into the mountains by his side with a powerful and very Wout van Aert, big-man-who-climbs set of rides. I pegged him to win in Paris – he finished second behind pure sprinter Sam Bennett, but he then pulled himself out of the World Championships, unwilling to even try and defend his title. Mads Pedersen was, in fact, too young to be the World Champion, too young to support the expectations and pressures of the Rainbow Jersey, and the loss of that heavy responsibility had to come as a form of relief for the young Dane. He bounces back, this one does, as his clear win at Gent-Wevelgem showed. Pedersen cleverly used the van Aert-van der Poel rivalry to his benefit, smoking Florian Sénéchal and Matteo Trentin in the sprint, showing the world that he is indeed a rider of the highest quality. Which should not be a surprise given his stellar, pre-professional career. Mads Pedersen was a top junior, second behind Mathieu van der Poel in the Junior World Road Championships, winner of the Peace Race ahead of MvdP, and winner of Paris-Roubaix Juniors. Interestingly, he won the U-23 Gent-Wevelgem along with a series of great rides and wins during his U-23 period. He didn’t lose any time either after turning pro for Trek-Segafredo in 2017, becoming Danish National Champion and winning two stage races in his first year. Now that the pressure is off, especially with a race of the quality of Gent-Wevelgem in the pocket, Mads Pedersen can finish off this truncated season with a sense of calm, knowing that he finished his first Tour de France as a markedly improved racer, one with much greater depth than before. He’ll be one to closely watch this Sunday at the Tour of Flanders, in form but absent any pressures, knowing that he’s the equal of anyone on the starting line.

I need to address the issues surrounding Pedersen’s Trek-Segafredo teammate, the 19-year old American and current Junior World Champion Quinn Simmons. For those who don’t know, Simmons responded to a decidedly provocative tweet by a Dutch cycling journalist with an emoji. The gist of the Tweet was along the lines of: “if you support Donald Trump, you can leave Europe” (something like that). Simmons posted a hand waving goodbye, unfortunately, the emoji was dark. Now, before I get into this, best to let you know a couple of things about myself. In the early 1990’s I won an election, becoming the first-ever Democrat to win office in the then 118-year existence of my decidedly Republican Pennsylvania Borough. I now live in Harlem. While none of the above is a guarantee of anything, I do believe it shows a certain perspective on life. That said, I’m dismayed and disappointed at how Simmons has been treated by his team, by their benching of him. I’ll admit here that sometime in the past I sent an emoji that was dark-hued. I had no idea of what it meant. And, I do not believe for a moment that Simmon’s emoji was purposely racist in any way. What would it signify? It is his hand waving goodbye, not someone else’s. It makes no sense, there’s no way that I can figure – and I’ve tried - that contorts that emoji, in the context of the message, into a racist statement. Lucy and I had friends over for drinks last week, an interracial couple, one a media figure and the other a civil rights lawyer. We discussed Simmon’s plight at length. The lawyer put it this way: “ In this age, every kid should get a mulligan (golf term for do-over) on social media postings. If a pattern emerges, that’s one thing, but to destroy someone for one post is simply not fair.” Simmons has publicly apologized for the emoji and that should be enough. As fan of Tommy Smith and John Carlos (1968 Black Power salute, 1968 Olympics), I firmly believe that Simmons has the right to express a political preference and cannot be punished for it. What’s more, if cycling is to cradle rob in the same way as basketball and soccer, signing teenagers to professional contracts then thrusting them into adult worlds, they need to layer in sets of protections for the kids, to be aware and accepting of the fact that kids do dumb things. That’s how they learn their way through the world. I truly hope that we get to see the American Junior World Champion in action this year. If not, Patrick Lefevere, the boss of the Deceuninck-Quickstep team, is a man who knows how to nurture and above all, protect talent. Simmons could do worse that to give him a call.