Mattias Skjelmose back on top at the Tour de Suisse: "I am happy to take back the yellow jersey"

Mattias Skjelmose has regained the overall lead of the Tour de Suisse after stage 5, overturning the 2-second deficit he started the day with to gain a lead of 8 seconds.

"I actually felt really good when the rest of the favourites came on. I just had a bad moment. I was a little afraid to go deep because I know we went so high," said the Trek - Segafredo rider in his post-stage interview. "If you go too deep, you pay double the price afterwards. So then I tried to check and talked to Remco. We rode at our own pace.”

After battling hard to regain contact with the group containing the Yellow Jersey of Felix Gall, Skjelmose actually attacked in the final few hundred metres, gapping the AG2R Citroen Team leader and regained the overall lead of the race.

"I knew at the end of the climb that I had one good jump in me. I started just two hundred meters too late, otherwise I could have taken back more there," he explained. "I am happy to take back the yellow jersey. The only bad thing about having a leader's jersey is having it on during the time trial, but that's something we have to take into account. I'm glad I have it."

On what turned out to be a dangerous final descent to the line, both Magnus Sheffield and Gino Mader suffered hard crashes. Skjelmose saw the Sheffield incident. “Just over the top me, Sheffield, Urán and Bardet were together and we went full throttle downhill to overtake the guys in front of us. In one of the first corners, Magnus went really fast, which put him out too far. He crashed, but it looked like he was going over the side of the mountain. I really hope he's okay."