Mattias Skjelmose "has full focus" on testing himself at Giro

Trek - Segafredo have a very dynamic team pointing towards the Giro d'Italia, with several climbers who will be eyeing the overall classification and stage wins. In a mix, is Mattias Skjelmose who is testing himself in a new experience.

Team DS Gregory Rast has told VeloNews at the start of stage three that "Ciccone is still our leader but with Mattias he’s also trying to do a grand tour result. This is his first grand tour and we’re taking it week by week because we can’t send him here and tell him to do a result. We’ll see how far he goes and we’ll give him freedom."

He added: "If Ciccone is good then Mattias will stay with him, and then we’ll have two guys there. Bauke is still going to target stages.” Skjelmose is on his Grand Tour debut, however he is highly regarded in the peloton as an emerging stage-racer, a strong climber, aswell as time-trialist and someone who's shown to be very tactically astute.

With that said, Trek - Segafredo are looking to develop him as a Grand Tour contender. Having finished third at the Tour de la Provence, he's shown to be able to ride at a high level this year. He's looking to replicate that performance in Italy: "Mattias' mentally really focused on this. He took the worst of it with the crash at Liege and had to work hard to start here. He has full focus here and we’ll go all in for a GC and we’ll see where he is after the three weeks," Rast said.

The team though is focused on Giulio Ciccone to eye the GC. The Italian has struggled over the last few editions with bad luck, but remains positive - despite a very modest performance in the time-trial which has seen him loose important time. Skjelmose struggled in the slopes of Mount Etna, shedding over two minutes to the GC group.

"If you lose a minute today a top-10 result is not over because the second and third weeks it’s just harder. If you lose a minute today you can’t be too disappointed if you can start to get better. Ciccone lost time in the time trial and to be on the podium, it’s not good, but top 10 or top five, we’re not going to give up," Rast concluded.