Sun, rain, hail, sleet and snow. Today had everything.
With 163km’s on the cards and 2,700 metres of climbing, today was always going to be a hard day out but no one knew just how hard…
With 46km to go, the weather conditions worsened and the call was made to halt the race. This gave a chance for our guys to change clothes, layer up and take on some hot drinks in the freezing conditions. After a small neutralised section, racing got underway and Mads Pedersen wasted no time in setting a fierce pace on the front of the peloton.
Mattias Skjelmose -
I didn't think we were going to race again but Mads told me early on to prepare myself to race because there's no way they'll stop it. 2 minutes after we restarted, Mads came to me and said he was feeling really good and asked if we should do something. He went to the front and went like a Kawasaki for the last 25km's. Hats off to him, he was so impressive like always.
Skjelly turned it up a notch on the final climb
After we got going again after the neutral, I turned my mentality and even though I was freezing and shaking, I was ready to race. I was really going deep in the last 200 metres and it was not fun. I'm happy to be able to finish it off like this. Despite the weather, I think it's a really good result and to only lose 2 seconds to Almeida and 1 second to Vingegaard isn't bad. I'm in a good position and confident for the next stages.
Third place on the stage brings Mattias up to third on general classification, only 33 seconds off yellow and he is now leading the white best young rider classification.
(Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
