"When you see riders on this Team, sacrifice themselves for you... it is not good enough to be third in the GC"
The Tour of Denmark ended with a punishing final stage, and the battle for the overall win after five days of racing came down to the last steep kilometer.
The top three in the standings came into the final day separated by three seconds. The last two kilometers were uphill, and it came down to the strongest legs between race leader Magnus Sheffield, Christophe Laporte and Mattias Skjelmose.
In the end, Laporte grabbed the stage win and time bonus to win the overall classification of the 5-day race. Sheffield, who held the race lead since Stage 2, finished second.
Skjelmose closed the gap to the two leaders in the final meters, flying across the finish in third place and sealing the final podium step. It appeared like a solid result for the young Dane, but we learned more when we caught up to him for his reaction.
“I am disappointed,” were his first words.
Jasper (Stuyven), especially, is a guy who can win himself, and when he sacrifices his own chances for me, it’s disappointing I can’t pay him – and the whole team – back.
Mattias continued: “I think the team rode perfectly for me today; I was always out of trouble and in position in the key moments. Well, almost always in key position. I fucked it up the last time up the climb, and you can never know 100 percent, but I think it cost me the win today.”
That is cycling. You need to be strong, have a great team around you willing to sacrifice for you, and then it comes down to you. You need to be the one to fire the final bullet.
When Mattias went to pull the trigger, he faltered. Although he recovered, that moment cost him the chance at his first big win.
“It was a good week, and of course third place in the end is something to celebrate, but I am quite disappointed when you see riders on this Team, such big profiles, sacrifice themselves for you. Then it is not good enough to be third in the GC,” explained Mattias.
“I wanted to win. And especially when I had the legs, I feel sad that I couldn’t pay them back. Jasper (Stuyven), especially, is a guy who can win himself, and when he sacrifices his own chances for me, it’s disappointing I can’t pay him – and the whole team – back.”
But there’s always a silver lining, and 21-year-old Mattias, who is still learning much about himself, found it:
“I have this long sprint, especially after a hard race, but I struggled a little bit with the first acceleration. And that’s why positioning is so important for me because I can lose a little bit, and then I can always come back in the end. But now, I was too far back and had to close too big of a gap. In one way, it’s super sad, but in another, it’s really nice to know I have this. In my view, there are not a lot of climbers who can do this, and it’s really nice to know for the future.”
Mattias may have been disappointed in himself, but the Team’s performance was again top-notch. Three riders finished in the top 15 in the steep uphill finish and Trek-Segafredo, coming into the final stage in 3rd place, won the teams classification.
Jasper Stuyven, who played a key support for Mattias all week, also finished in 9th GC.
