An incredible performance by Mattias Skjelmose sees him finish third on Stage 16
Mattias Skjelmose produced one of the best time trials of his life to take the third spot on Stage 16 of the Tour de France, a 26km hilly individual time trial. The Dane crossed the line in 33’23”, posting the provisional fastest time at the finish in Thonon-les-Bains, on the shores of Lac Leman. However, Skjelmose would later be knocked off the top spot by the eventual stage winner, Remco Evenepoel – the world champion in this discipline. Several minutes later, the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar also bested the Dane’s time, though it remains as an incredibly impressive performance against the clock.
Speaking at the finish line, Skjelmose said “I’m super happy. We wanted to put a statement today… and I think that’s what we did. We made a bet about starting crazy hard, harder than I actually thought I could and today was just one of those days where I could keep going.
“Juan is still the main guy for us. He’s still in front in GC, as far as I’m concerned. I’m super sad to hear that Florian [Lipowitz] crashed however, that also means that Juan moved one spot up in GC. That means one spot closer to the podium. That is still our goal. I still believe we can do it.
“I spoke with my coach, and we said that sometimes you need to make a bet. The bet was just go as hard as possible to the top and then hope you can hold it on the way back. Like I said, I went harder than I thought was possible. It paid off in the end. I would say 9 out of 10 times it doesn’t, but today I just had one of those days where I almost didn’t feel the change. We’ve seen in the Grand Tours I’ve done, that I have a tendency to get better every day.”
Heading into the final week, Lidl-Trek occupy 5th (Juan Ayuso) and 6th (Skjelmose) places in the general classification, and with Mads Pedersen leading the points classification.
