Seemingly a calling card for Milan-San Remo, Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), who won the Paris-Nice stage 3 with a powerful uphill sprint, will not be on the start line for La Primavera on the 19th.

Defending champion Jasper Steiven will be Trek-Segafredo's lone leader in Milan-San Remo.

"With Roubaix a week away this year, it's too long to keep my form peaked," he said. Jasper definitely deserves to be this year's leader, given his win last year." We talked about it a lot: Jasper deserves to be the leader. So I'm going to focus on my plan and concentrate on getting that last bit of strength before the Classic."

Pedersen swept past 2020 Milan-San Remo winner Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) in a strong sprint in Dans-le-Parestel. The victory was his second of the 2022 season, but his focus is now on the cobbled classics rather than the Via Roma.

Stuyven also expressed his understanding of Pedersen's decision to forgo the Italian race, stressing that his main concern is to see Trek-Segafredo's two classic leaders both in their best form in the cobbled races.

"He won't be competing in Sanremo, but it's not about giving back, it's about who has the best card to win.

"In the Classics season, we both want to be at a good level, and I know that's what I'm going to do. But in the sprints, I think he trusts me 100 percent and I think I'm good at leading out. I just want to run for my friends and for my good teammates."

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The victory was Trek-Segafredo's first WorldTour win since last July, although Pedersen had already taken a stage win at Etoile de Besseges, although he claimed he was enjoying the best form of his life ahead of the 2019 World Championships, admitted that he had never been as strong as he was earlier in the season.

"I don't know why," Pedersen said. 'Maybe after I changed coaches last year I changed my approach to the season. Instead of taking slow steps toward the Classic, he took big steps and tried to keep it steady for a long time. I hope that's the right thing to do."

Pedersen, who said his new trainer is "the coach of the team," opted to skip this year's opening weekend despite winning the 2021 Clune Brussel-Coulomb. The biggest spring objective is Paris-Roubaix, which this year takes place two weeks after the Tour de Flanders.

"Roubaix is definitely my dream race, and if I could choose, I would definitely choose Roubaix. But when my career is over, if I had won in Flanders instead of Roubaix, I wouldn't complain."

Beyond the classics, Pedersen plans to perform in the opening time trial of the Tour de France in Copenhagen in July. He lost out to world champion Filippo Ganna in the Etoile de Besseges time trial and will test his mettle in Wednesday's 13.9-km individual time trial from Paris to Montluçon on stage 4 of Nice.

"The TT is similar to the Copenhagen TT at the start of the Tour, with a small kick at the end. Tomorrow is not a rest day, it's a full day of action."