"I have made many sacrifices for this" - Mattias Skjelmose beats Ayuso and Evenepoel for career-best victory at Tour de Suisse

Mattias Skjelmose won his first World Tour stage earlier this week at the Tour de Suisse, and now he sealed the GC win. It was a very long and complicated week for the Dane, but he has ultimately achieved the top result.

"I have made many sacrifices for this. And of course Gino is dead. With those thoughts, it all came out for me after the finish. Giro's family thought it was the most important thing that we raced through. So we did that for them," Skjelmose said in a post-race interview.

Having to face Juan Ayuso and Remco Evenepoel in the final time-trial, it was a monumental task ahead of him. With a meaningful loss of time in the first intermediate point, it seemed as if the leader of Trek - Segafredo was bound to lose it. He was provisionally out of yellow, but then the second half of his effort was incredibly strong.

He bounced back to take time on both riders, and then rode to third on the day, but conserving the race lead as he only lost 9 seconds to the Spaniard in the finish. “I always believe in victory. My form is good for the Tour," he concluded. Although he can't immediately be assumed as a GC contender for the Tour de France, his debut will be followed with very high anticipation.