Team DSM extend contract with Casper Pedersen

Casper Pedersen has extended his contract with Team DSM until the end of the 2022 season.

Having joined the team in 2019, Pedersen quickly settled in and showed promising performances in his opening year, helping the team to wins throughout the season before making his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a España. In 2020, he was part of the team’s sprint block and really shone through in a team that harked back to the halcyon days of sprint trains, with Pedersen transitioning and developing into an important part of that group. After being part of the team’s incredibly successful 2020 Tour de France on his race debut, Pedersen rounded off his season with a fantastic win in a two-up sprint finish at Paris-Tours; highlighting his strength and speed on the bike, but also his ability to read races – a skill that he has transferred over excellently to his role as part of the team’s burgeoning sprint group.

On extending his contract with Team DSM, Pedersen said: “I’m really happy to extend my contract with Team DSM for another year. A big part of the reason of why I first joined the team was my trust in the way Team DSM worked with its young riders and the professional approach to every aspect of becoming a good bike rider – whether that was nutrition, optimised training plans or tactical planning for the races. My goal was, and still is, to develop myself to become the best rider I possibly can and in the last two years my development has been going well with the team. I believe we can continue this trend and I feel really comfortable with the riders and staff, so extending was an easy decision for me to make. I believe I can continue to get better and better over the next years and achieve great things together with the team.”

Team DSM head of coaching Rudi Kemna added: “We’re pleased to have Casper with us for another year in 2022. Since he’s been with us, he’s really developed well as a rider and we’re really happy with how we work together. He’s shown to be very strong as part of our sprint group and that’s where we see him developing in the future. It’s not only his ability on the bike that we’re impressed with, but his ability to read a race is very good and he offers experience and the tactical nous to make a quick and well-informed decision on the bike; something that is really important in hectic sprint finishes. We’re looking forward to continuing to work together with Casper, to help him improve even more as a rider and achieve some more good results.”