What a first win of the year from ☝️ @skjelmose_ ☝️?! #ParisNice
"I thought Remco or Primoz or one of the guys high up on the GC would close it," - Mattias Skjelmose very surprised with strong win at Paris-Nice
CyclingFriday, 08 March 2024 at 16:51
Mattias Skjelmose climbed from 19th to 4th in the overall classification after a chaotic day at Paris-Nice. It couldn't have gone any better for the Lidl-Trek rider who won stage 6 and showed great form whilst some of his big rivals lost time.
"I'm really happy and surprised. I was feeling quite good all day but these kind of days are very special you need a lot of luck. The team worked perfectly for me and after Mads [Pedersen] was brought back from the breakaway... When the team works like this it minimizes the luck you need," Skjelmose said in a post-race interview. "I love to race in France and specially this area, I had an emotional win in Haut Vat last year which was close to here also, I love racing in this area and it's the first win of the year for me and that's always a special one."
The rainy day was a struggle for some, in the main climb of the day the peloton had already brought back the breakaway for a long time and action kicked off quite quickly. Primoz Roglic set things off, but after the steepest section of the ascent Matteo Jorgenson attacked and got a gap. Soon after he was joined by Skjelmose himself and Brandon McNulty who had the freedom from the chasing group.
"I thought Remco or Primoz or one of the guys high up on the GC would close it, but then I tried to pull a little bit and they let me go," the Dane said, surprised that his attack worked. "Gave me a few meters and it went off. Brandon joined me, and then we closed to Matteo." What followed was the trio working together to build a gap of a minute whilst the chasing group did not efficiently chase. This puts him in the GC fight - for the podium or even victory - once again, but then he still had the pleasure of taking a convincing win in the final sprint against the American duo.
"It's happened bigger miracles in cycling than me winning Paris-Nice but I think the other guys are stronger than me," he says. "Today was a bit of a weird way to win because I played on me being down in GC, and then having such a big gap on me it such a nice way to win, I think those guys were stronger than me." Nevertheless, the Dane showed to be on a tremendous day, in terms of legs and tactics.
He believes in fact that he is in the best form of his career so far, better than when he won the Tour de Suisse last year ahead of Juan Ayuso and Remco Evenepoel. "I think so, I feel better than when I won Tour de Suisse last year and I feel like I'm in a good place right now... We lost time there (the team time-trial, ed.), but maybe I wouldn't have this stage win today because they wouldn't let me go with this amount of GC time. I'm happy where I am now."
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