"He didn't do everything he could" - Chris Horner criticizes Mattias Skjelmose's passiveness against Remco Evenepoel at Amstel Gold Race

At the Tour of Flanders there was a lot of criticism towards Mathieu van der Poel for willfully collaborating equally with Tadej Pogacar despite that harming his chances of taking the win. At Amstel Gold Race, albeit not as strongly, the same is being pointed towards Mattias Skjelmose.

The Dutch classic saw Romain Grégoire launch the initial attack and get dropped later on; Whilst Kévin Vauquelin, Matteo Jorgenson and Mathieu Burgaudeau were involved in a crash. That meant only Skjelmose could hang on with Remco Evenepoel in the decisive phase of the race. However behind, both Grégoire and Skjelmose had teammates in the casing group whilst Evenepoel did not, but both worked with the Belgian who was the overwhelming favourite.

"There was one clear top favorite in this race. You simply shouldn't keep riding with him. Just let him ride at the front," American Chris Horner argued on his own Youtube channel. For Evenepoel, the task was made easier. "He did nothing wrong and rode a perfect race. He was admittedly the only top rider at the start, but he did a great job".

But the former Vuelta a España winner did not ignore the fact that Evenepoel's rival teams effectively did not use any tactics against him, as was the case with Pogacar in Flanders, where his climbing superiority was evident yet Mathieu van der Poel repeated the same tactic that he had 12 months prior which led to him getting dropped on the very same climb.

"There were two Lidl-Trek teammates and one FDJ teammate in the chasing group. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe had no one, because they had been exhausted all day".

Horner strongly argues that Skjelmose should've refused to work or at least slow down to try and aid the possibility of his teammates returning to the front - which could then open up new race scenarios, in which Lidl-Trek could put the Olympic Champion and eventual winner under pressure.

"If you get back to the chasing group, you can still try to wear Remco down with your teammates. Albert Withen Philipsen and Ewen Costiou looked very strong. Then you could have taken turns attacking". That was not the case, and Evenepoel then comfortably won the final sprint against the Dane, who showed himself satisfied with the result and argued he did everything he could.

"He didn't do everything he could, because there were other tactics to create chaos," Horner argues. "Now Grégoire was dropped early, and I was waiting for Skjelmose to do the same. I understand that Skjelmose himself is satisfied with a second place, because if he disappoints throughout the season he can still say he was second in the Amstel, but his team manager really needs to say something about this," the American concluded.