The Danish road champion managed to place third in the first stage of Itzulia Basque Country
A good first outing for Mattias Skjelmose at Itzulia Basque Country. In the opening ITT of the race, which took place today in the town of Irun over a distance of 10km, the young Dane took third place behind the winner Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe), +10”, and Vine (UAE Emirates), +3”, delivering a convincing performance.
Overall I’m happy with my result and with what I did. The gap of 10” to Roglic, considering he also lost some seconds on the finish line, is actually not that small considering the expectations I had at the start, but a third place with those contenders it’s definitely not bad. For my ambition in this race, that is to fight for a podium place in the GC, it’s a good start. In such a hectic race, when you go all-in for the GC the chances to fight for the win come naturally. I really look forward to racing in the next days.
Seeing Skjelmose performing well in a race against the clock is actually an established fact. Numbers in hand, with today’s result Mattias brings his total of consecutive top ten result in ITT races (prologue excluded) to 10. A significant piece of data that also says a lot about his ability to prepare, approach and manage these brutal efforts, as happened today.
It was a hectic time trial and I really followed my feelings. In the end, it was all about instinct. I did a recon three weeks ago and it helped a lot to approach it in the best way, especially the part downwards, after the intermediate point. I faced it with lots of confidence and that made the difference to avoid risk and keep the speed fast.
