"Last year's race was my real breakthrough and now that Tadej Pogacar's not here I feel even better" - Mattias Skjelmose keen to improve on 2nd last year at La Fleche Wallonne
CyclingWednesday, 17 April 2024 at 12:00
Widely touted as one of the favourites for the Amstel Gold Race last weekend, things didn't really go to plan for Mattias Skjelmose. Later this afternoon at La Fleche Wallonne, the Lidl-Trek leader gets his chance to put things right.
"I'm confident from last year," explains the 23-year-old Dane in his pre-race interview, having finished runner-up at La Fleche Wallonne in 2023 behind Tadej Pogacar, who notably won't be here this year, with the Slovenian instead opting to prepare for Liege-Bastogne-Liege in the sunshine. "Last year's race was my real breakthrough and now that Tadej's not here I feel even better. Hopefully I can take a step up."
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When asked what are the keys to victory at La Fleche Wallonne, Skjelmose notes two things that would definitely help any rider. "I think for me, you need to have two things and that is great and a great team," he evaluates. "I believe we have both so that's the perfect recipe."
"I feel a lot better. I'm a lot lighter than last year and I would say the team is even better than last year so I'm confident," Skjelmose concludes. "They've removed that other climb so there's more Mur de Huy. That always takes energy so I hope it will be a harder race."
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- wow, you’re like a REALLY angry little fella, aren’t you? these discussions are supposed to be FUN, brother. if you find them this upsetting you should MAYYYYBE go for a walk, or get some tropical fish to look at or something. beyond my concern for your emotional well being, i gotta say i don’t understand a few things you tried to say. your point about van der poel at liege? i don’t get it. and exactly who are the “you people” who are persecuting you over pogacar’s walk-over at the giro. anyway, good luck with everything.OCexile08-11-2024
- Lefevere is such a clown.Sweep08-11-2024
- You're spewing nonsense. MVDP was at Liege too. Jonas did his best ever numbers in the Tour, as did Evenepoel. In the worlds, MVDP wasn't the only one chasing and a large part of the route was flat. Oh, did you forget that Pogi soloed 80 ks? What about the 80ks at Strade Bianche? The training ride at the Lombardia? And man, I can't stand how dismissive you people are of his Giro dominance. "There wasn't anyone around to challenge him" yeah well whenever a cyclist wins it's because there was no one else around who would be good enough. I'm sick of this imaginary opponents argument. Who was supposed to be there to challenge him anyways? Do you think Roglic or Evenepoel could do anything? Or Vingegaard, who always trains to peak for the Tour?Ayrton08-11-2024
- What a great ride that day, and what a great young rider. I am really looking forward to what he'll do next, and his attitude about racing is great. Let's hope he keeps that.RidesHills08-11-2024
- everyone should TRY to remember that just a year ago it was pascal the couldn’t remotely hang with vingegaard at the tour. the explanation for that was that pog had injured his wrist and that had interfered with his preparation. compare what a damaged wrist would do to your prep vs. what happened to vingegaard. i think a 100% healthy pogacar vs. a 100% healthy vingegaard at the tour is just about even money. hopefully that’s what we’ll get.OCexile08-11-2024
- i still believe that a thoroughly healthy jonas is at least a match for pogačar. i think some of tadej’s new aura of crushing invincibility comes from a year when everything lined up for him just right. to be clear, i’m NOT saying he’s not the most gifted rider on the planet! he IS! but… liége is made for him; there was NOBODY at the giro to challenge; jonas, for all his spirit, was broken and a shell of his true self at the tour. the Worlds course was a perfect fit for this year for pog, where slimmed down but still MUCH bigger van der poel still kept the gap under a minute in a course that REALLY didn’t suit HIM. my point is that i actually don’t think tadej suddenly launched himself to a level of ability far, far above where he’d been before. he’s a great rider that had an historically great year, but i don’t believe he’s become something NEW, and UNBEATABLE. if he’s fully healthy, i really expect jonas to be as much of a handful for pog as pog is for him.OCexile08-11-2024
- seriously, ESPECIALLY when paired with each other. when they put bob with phil, it’s like bob KNOWS he needs to tighten everything up because phil (god bless him) is losing his marbles. bob is actually pretty GOOD when he’s on phil duty. and when they took vande velde OUT of the booth with bob an put him on the back of a motorcycle, he was suddenly smart and edgy again. put those two guys TOGETHER though, and bob suddenly becomes the dumbest, sloppiest, most ill-informed pogacar and van aert fanboy on the planet, unleashing a constant stream of dim-witted, chuckling hyperbole, and christian is his enabling toady. yuk. after GCN folded i had to listen to wayyyy to much of their “dumb and dumber” show. they must be separated forever.OCexile08-11-2024
- Good news. Cycling world at least doesn't have rampant racism. But, I think it is partly because it is hard to dislike Biniam. He seems like a jolly good person even though he's a sprinter. Some sprinters are very aggressive/cocky.
KerisVroom08-11-2024 - Good news. Cycling world at least doesn't have rampant racism. But, I think it is partly because it is hard to dislike Biniam. He seems like a jolly good person even though he's a sprinter. Some sprinters are very aggressive/cocky.KerisVroom08-11-2024
- It will be a great race until the stage where it's not. Jonas can only hope for injury or illness to Pogacar. And Remco? There's no training, food, or technology that going to grant him 9 extra minutes in this race.Sweep08-11-2024