This time remaining yr, Mattias Skjelmose was once plotting a cautious path to the 2025 Excursion de France which concerned taking up his first Grand Excursion as chief, the Vuelta a España, and proving to himself he may just take care of the hard nature of a three-week GC bid.
On the other hand, after succeeding in that intention on the Vuelta, the place he completed 5th total, gained the most productive younger rider’s white jersey and simplest were given higher because the race went on, Skjelmose modified his ambition to short of some other yr of establishing on the Giro d’Italia.
He hasn’t been afforded that luxurious after revealing his 2025 time table, although, with Lidl-Trek as a substitute opting for to stay with the unique plan and ship him to the Excursion to chase GC.
“I would like to have done the Giro. After the Vuelta, it seemed like the most obvious step. But the team wanted me at the Tour.
“The Giro was once my selection and I used to be motivated for that. However I additionally remember the fact that the staff’s major purpose is the Excursion and we need to put the most powerful squad at all of the Grand Excursions and my area was once within the Excursion.”
Team management also revealed that it’s partially due to the sponsors being unhappy with how the 2024 Tour went for Lidl-Trek, who after Mads Pedersen abandoned before stage 8, were left without their key stage hunter.
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Giulio Ciccone also tried for GC but finished outside the top 10 and over 20 minutes away from the podium. Skjelmose offers the chance at a much higher finish.
“I feel with Mattias there, we’ve a in reality excellent probability. He is a man who survives the wind fairly smartly and handles that rigidity, after all, you have to have a GC man like him on the Excursion.
“If everybody is healthy and fit, I think he will be close to the top five to seven in the Tour and that will be really nice.”
After impressing in Spain and dropping out simplest to Primož Roglič, Ben O’Connor, Richard Carapaz and Enric Mas, Skjelmose was once happy with the step up he made however felt going for GC on the Excursion was once too quickly, with a Giro look in 2025 extra appropriate to his present degree.
“I’m super happy with my Vuelta, especially because I had a difficult first week and I really bounced back,” he mentioned.
“I confirmed my belief that I could be a GC leader at a Grand Tour, also the way the Vuelta was ridden was really hard with no easy days, which confirmed that my recovery is improving and that was my main problem in previous Grand Tours.”
The Dane felt the rostrum was once extra inside of achieve on the Giro in comparison to on the Excursion the place, barring harm to any of the highest stars, he will most likely be within the thick of a congested struggle for fourth at the back of the trio of Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.
“With all the respect for the Vuelta, I think is the one that is maybe the easiest with media attention and pressure and obviously the Tour is above all by quite a big amount,” mentioned Skjelmose.
“So the Giro would make sense in the way that there’s more pressure than the Vuelta, but still not as much as in the Tour. I felt I took a big step after the Vuelta, pure performance-wise, and I would like to have seen myself performing [at the Giro], maybe reaching for a podium.”
Whilst he does not but imagine 2025 is the yr he fits the ones 3 discussed above, Skjelmose is aware of anything else can occur in 3 weeks.
“I said before that you always try to be the best as possible because you never know how good the guys there are. And I have never been with these guys, so I don’t know the numbers needed to stay with them,” mentioned the Dane.
“I think it would be difficult to stay with them this year but I hope to be right behind them at least. Then if you’re there, you never know, one bad day in the Tour, and a lot of things can happen. But I still think they are one or two steps above me.”
Skjelmose may not be the primary focal point as he was once on the Vuelta again in August and September, with Jonathan Milan’s debut and the dash teach he is bringing with him set to soak up the vast majority of Lidl-Trek’s eight-man roster.
“Yes and no,” mentioned Skjelmose when requested if he was once the staff chief for July. “The main priority will be Milan, and then I will see how it goes.
As it stands, he won’t have any specific mountain support, but a lot can changed to their planned roster in the next seven months and the Dane is aware, as Mads Pedersen when it was announced he wouldn’t be doing the Tour, that Milan presents a real chance at winning four stages and the green jersey.
“I imply, after all, I’d have appreciated some make stronger, and I do not believe it is totally determined but,” mentioned Skjelmose.
“However I additionally remember the fact that Johnny is some of the proficient sprinter on this planet presently and he wishes all of the make stronger he can. He is were given a large shot at inexperienced and we wish to make stronger the staff objectives.
“The team prioritized this and that’s how it is. I just want to show myself and if it ends up not being on GC, then somewhere else.”
Skjelmose will head to a few altitude camps round his season ahead of beginning the Excursion in Lille, with a in large part equivalent calendar to 2024. He will get started issues in France on the Faun-Ardèche and Faun-Drome Classics, ahead of using Paris-Great, Itzulia Basque Nation, all 3 Ardennes Classics and the Critérium du Dauphiné.
