Mads Pedersen withdraws from La Vuelta 2026 due to illness and turns his focus to the World Championships

La Vuelta a España 2026 loses another of its big names. Mads Pedersen will not start stage 11 after Lidl-Trek confirmed his withdrawal due to illness. The Danish rider had been struggling with issues for several days, and his performance on Tuesday made it clear that something was not right.

Mads Pedersen withdraws from La Vuelta 2026 due to illness before stage 11

Lidl-Trek announced this Wednesday morning that Mads Pedersen will not continue in La Vuelta a España 2026. The former world champion will not be at the start of stage 11, thus bringing an end to a race in which he had not been able to show his usual level.

The team explains that Pedersen has been battling an illness for several days and that the priority from now on will be to fully recover before facing his next goals of the season.

Unfortunately, Mads Pedersen will not take the start of today’s stage 11 of La Vuelta.

After battling illness over the past few days, Mads will now focus on making a full recovery before turning his attention to his remaining targets this season.

Get well soon, Mads … pic.twitter.com/IZzGvDKUNT

— Lidl-Trek (@LidlTrek) September 2, 2026

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The decision comes after the concerning sensations he left during stage 10. Pedersen dropped from the peloton when there were still about 30 kilometers to go and finished the day among the last classified.

It was not just a bad day. The cyclist himself admitted after the stage that his performance did not match the form he believed he had.

"The form is good enough, but clearly something is not as it should be," Pedersen explained to Eurosport.

The Dane had already mentioned during the rest day, in his podcast Lang Distance, that he was suffering from sore throat. Despite this, he had still shown some positive signs during the first week, especially with his second place behind Bryan Coquard at the finish in Xeraco of stage 8.

Pedersen wanted to keep thinking about the World Championship, but Lidl-Trek has opted to stop

After stage 10, Pedersen still kept the possibility of continuing open. In fact, he considered that completing La Vuelta could be part of his preparation for one of his major goals at the end of the season: the World Road Championship in Montreal on September 27.

The Lidl-Trek rider insisted then that there was still a long way to go to Granada and hoped to recover within the race itself. However, he also acknowledged that the decision did not depend solely on him and that continuing only made sense if his health allowed it.

Less than 24 hours later, the team decided not to take any more risks.

Pedersen thus withdraws from a Vuelta that was not going as he expected. The Dane arrived in Spain after a particularly troubled season. On his first day of competition in 2026, during the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, he suffered a fall that caused clavicle and wrist fractures.

Despite that, he managed to return quickly and had a strong spring with a fourth place in Milan-San Remo, fifth in the Tour of Flanders, and seventh in Paris-Roubaix. He later won the green jersey of the Tour de France, thus completing his collection of points classifications in the three Grand Tours.

La Vuelta was also meant to be an important part of his journey towards the World Championship, but illness has forced a change in those plans. Pedersen withdraws before stage 11 and will now focus all his efforts on recovering, with Montreal as one of the major goals still left on his calendar.