Teams & Riders Mattias Skjelmose: The Blond Assassin

[Boehmand]

Fighting for position and insisting not dropping a single second in the first 10 stages or so will cost significant energy. Add the fact that Skjelmose is not protected and risking crashing, the effort is not worth it imo. Anyway, I know these guys will continue the normal plan and just hang on for as long as possible etc, but heres to hoping for a different, more aggressive approach. Note: This is not meant to single out Skjelmose, rather I'm using him as general case.

I see your point, but I'd still make the same choice to not drop time till it was needed.

You'd be kicking yourself for the rest of your life, if you dropped 20 minutes on purpose the first week and then Pogacar and Vingegaard crashed out on stage 8

 

[Boehmand]

I don’t think it’s too bad as long as he intends to be aggressive in the opening week. He is quite a punchy rider who could snag a hilly stage even from the favourites group if Pogacar/MVDP started looking only at each other and let others slip away.

Obviously if he got a stage in the first week, this is all a moot point.

If he got the stage win early, the rest of the race would be wholly focused on GC.