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Cycling has had a special place in my sporting heart ever since I saw Jørgen Leth’s magical 1974 documentary classic The Stars and the Water Carriers as a teenager.
I followed the great classics, the Giro and the Tour, and passed my own tough endurance test by reading through Joakim Jacobsen’s 740-page book “Tour de France. The Story of the World’s Greatest Cycling Race.”
I actually once watched a Giro stage with Gösta “Fåglum” Pettersson, at home in his living room in Vårgårda!
For those of you who don’t know the age, Gösta “Fåglum” Pettersson is the only Swede to win the Italian Giro in 1971. He is almost never mentioned when we name Sweden’s greatest athletes of all time – which is strange and shameful at the same time.
I found it on HBO Max This week coincidentally Johannes T. Hansen and Anders Mielke’s four-part long documentary about the Danish cyclist Mads Pedersen.
I thought I’d take a quick look at the first episode, I was hooked for three hours.
After the four episodes, everyone in Småland doesn’t want to miss this year’s race
The film is called “Mads Pedersen. Chasing Cobbles”. Cobbles means cobblestones in Swedish, and that’s exactly what it’s all about: Mads Pedersen’s quest to win one of the five classics, or the “Monuments” as they are called.
There are these nightmare races: Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Tour of Lombardy.
It’s long, it’s narrow, it’s steep. It’s cobblestones! If there is a sports hell, this is it.
We follow Mads Pedersentight, tight, for pretty much all of 2024. We will be close not only to him, but to the entire team, the entire team, the management, the co-drivers, the technicians, the trainers, the masseurs, the drivers, etc.
Cycling is almost unimaginable and extreme in all its facets, whether it’s about training, endurance, tactics, team spirit, betting – it’s extremely fast, it’s very dangerous and in the end it’s only about one thing: dealing with pain. Persistent pain. Make friends with your pain.
But: Mads Pedersen is not just a world star, king of his stable who is served by everyone – he is also an incredibly loyal team player and teammate. Takes care of everything and everyone. Never forget to show appreciation to your extremely dedicated teammates. It’s absolutely beautiful to look at. Not so nice: nightmare-long training sessions, six, seven hours, in the rain, in the cold, against the wind, at top speed. Indescribably hard.
I won’t spoil it Mads Pedersen’s 2024, but there is one hundred percent tension in all four episodes. And after that, don’t miss this year’s race as Milan-Sanremo is coming up soon, on March 21st, three of the races are in April and the Tour of Flanders ends in October. In other words: the cycle year is fixed.
It was probably the saddest and most painful thing I’ve ever seen on a football field
We actually had a Swedish “monument” winner, Linköping boy Magnus Bäckstedt, who won Paris–Roubaix in 2004. This year Stefan Holm won both the Jerring Prize and the Bragdguldet. The question is whether Bäckstedt’s performance wasn’t the real sporting achievement of the year. I would probably say that. Surely.
The most dramatic of the week and heartbreaking television images came from Spain and Atlético Madrid’s home stadium, the Metropolitana. Tottenham goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky conceded three goals in the blink of an eye – and was replaced and humiliated after just 17 minutes.
It was probably the saddest and most painful thing I’ve ever seen on a football field. The bad luck that grinned in Kinsky’s face is unimaginable – and cruel. Tottenham’s interim coach Igor Tudor has probably cracked what was still to be cracked. Zero humanity – one hundred percent egoism. Kinsky was immediately forgiven. How will Tudor ever be forgiven…?
Read more of Johan Croneman’s chronicles here
