Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) claimed the biggest victory of his career today, after outsprinting Remco Evenepoel(Soudal-QuickStep) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in a thrilling sprint finale in Valkenburg.
Evenepoel was the first to open up his sprint with Pogačar poised in his wheel. The Slovenian rider then came around his Belgian rival, only to have the Dane emerge from his slipstream to snatch the victory.
Earlier, Pogačar looked poised to jettison the peloton when he launched an attack on the Kruisberg, leaving Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) and the rest of the field beheind after the duo had escaped on the Gulperberg with just under 50km to go.
However, with 25km remaining, Skjelmose was joined by Evenepoel as they chased the World Champion down, later catching him with just 8km to go.
From there, the final ascent of the Caubert was ridden conservatively, with all three banking on the final sprint.
“I tried to have a bit of a gap and go on the right, because the wind came from the left,” Skjelmose said afterwards. “But Remco went right, and then Tadej went right as well, so I had to go on the left side. In the end, I don’t know what happened.”
Previously, an eight-rider breakaway group escaped the peloton about half-way through the race, later ecking out an advantage of more than four-minutes. But, the escapees were eventually reeeled in during the last 70km.
A period of tension then followed in the bunch. First EF Education-Oatly took control, then Lidl-Trek, rolling at more than 44km/h through the Dutch hills.
With 48km remaining, sensing moves were imminent, Alaphilippe kickstarted the finale with an attack, with Pogačar immediately pouncing on the Frenchman’s wheel, sending a nervous ripple among the chasers behind him.
Still seated, Pogačar quietly turned the screw on Alaphilippe, and drifted away up the road, with both Skjelmose and Evenepoel later bridging their way to the lone leader
