Skjelmose was always looked up to as a rider who has the skills necessary to be a rider fighting and winning the general classifications in stage races, including Grand Tours. Last season, while racing his 2nd year in World Tour, the Danish talent got his first Grand Tour debut at
Giro d'Italia.
He went to Giro has a shadow leader in a squad that featured the always combative Italian climber Giulio Ciccone and one of the surprises of the Giro, Juan Pedro Lopez, who got to wear the pink jersey for 10 stages and finished 10th overall. But the expectations about him were not match has he finished 40th overall, having a low profile performance. He stated that his Giro results were related to too harsh trains and too much pressure on himself as the shadow leader of the team.
Despite his not very eventful debut at a Grand Tour, Skjelmose is still a very talented rider that has a lot of potential to do great results at World Tour level and secured a great 2022 season. He gives this success to his teammate, compatriot
Mads Pedersen, who he calls “big brother”.
“I was told last year that I am a leader, but I also have to show that I am a leader. In that respect, I have a mentor in Mads. He is someone I look up to, he is like a big brother to me and tries to teach me everything. Just before the Tour of Luxembourg, I watched a speech by Mads on the bus before a stage in the Vuelta. He encouraged his teammates to perform, and he won his first stage that day. I learnt a lot from that. Mads Pedersen is very special and one of the reasons I had such a good year”, he said.
Mads Pedersen is one of the team captains, will this mean that Skjelmose can also get this role? For now, he remains cautious.
“I don't have the self-confidence of Mads, but I tried to do the same in Luxembourg. I think it helped the team that I showed that I really meant it, that I could do it. You have to show your teammates that you are a leader and not just because a team leader says so to you. I cannot be the same rider as Mads because we are completely different. But as a person, as a leader and as a human being, I really look up to what he does”, concluded Skjelmose.