photo credits @ WTFK
Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) took an impressive victory in stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse today, after the Danish rider attacked along the early slopes of the 10- kilometer climb to Villars-sur-Ollon, dropping his companion Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën Team) with 600 meters to go to seize the day’s honors.
“I had a really big question mark about my climbing abilities,” Skjelmose said afterwards. “Ok, this is not the hardest mountain stage, but it’s still a really long climb, and I did really good. I think we can put a little bit smaller question mark at least.”
As a result of his stage win, Skjelmose moved up into the overall race lead, while Gall trails at 3 seconds back.
Race Highlight
Skjelmose was one of just two riders who followed Remco Evenepoel(Soudal Quick-Step) when he attacked on the category-one climb. With 2.5 kilometers to go, the young Dane drifted away from the Belgian rider, following AG2R Citröen’s Gall, who he beat in a two-up dash to the line.
Evenepoel found himself dropped as the summit approached, first by Gall, then by Skjelmose. From there, Evenepoel was later caught by a chase group led by Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), who passed him and rode away for third place.
“I wasn’t sure if Remco was playing games or if he was on the limit,” Skjelmose said. “I was a little bit more worried about Felix, because when he attacked, he went really fast.”
In sight of the finish line, Skjelmose continued to measure his effort, and held off Gall for his first WorldTour win, a feat he said was “incomparable” to the rest of his palmarès.
Asked if he is capable of holding the GC lead until the end, he said: “We hope so. We’re going to try our best. There are a lot of strong teams and it will be difficult but we will try our best. Hopefully we can do really well and defend it until the last TT, then it will be all up to me.”
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