Teams & Riders Mattias Skjelmose: The Blond Assassin

[SHAD0W93]

Party pooper alert?

It’s relative on how the person views it and this was a great win for Skjelmose. I’m sure with everything in his post, he will have fond memories and remember this win for a long time.

I think they are on par.

The monuments are the equivalent to the Grand Tours in 1 day racing.

The next tier in stage racing is P-N, Tirreno, Catalunya, Itzulia, Romandie, Dauphine and TDS.

In 1 day racing the next tier is Omloop, Strade, E3, Wevelgem, Dwars, Amstel, Fleche and San Sebastian.

They are comparable but I’d rather win a stage race vs one day and he also had a great performance during that race. I also don’t think Omloop, Dwars, and San Sebastian are on that tier. I’d have them below it.

 

[tobydawq]

TDS is more prestigious race than AGR.

I really don't think that's a fact.

 

[Red Rick]

I don't know about you lot but I'd rather win an Amstel Gold Race being Pogacar and Evenepoel in a 3 man sprint than a TdS that everyone mainly remembers for the tragic death of a fellow rider.

 

[Brullnux]

Amstel is obviously a more prestigious race than the Tour of Switzerland. There is a much bigger drop between Grand Tours and one-week stage races than Monuments and Amstel/Ghent.

 

[Red Rick]

Amstel is obviously a more prestigious race than the Tour of Switzerland. There is a much bigger drop between Grand Tours and one-week stage races than Monuments and Amstel/Ghent.

I'd place the groups fairly close to each other overall but Amstel is arguably the most prestigious of it's class while Switserland at this point may be the least prestigious if we go by it's palmares the last 15 years.

 

[Rou]

It's obvious he values AGR more than TDS because he beat two mutants who are the face of cycling nowadays. The same way if Roglic beats Vingegaard in a Vuelta he would value it more than a Giro.

 

[Red Rick]

It's obvious he values AGR more than TDS because he beat two mutants who are the face of cycling nowadays. The same way if Roglic beats Vingegaard in a Vuelta he would value it more than a Giro.

I doubt Rog prefers his 2020 Vuelta win over his Giro win.

 

[Berniece]

It's obvious he values AGR more than TDS because he beat two mutants who are the face of cycling nowadays. The same way if Roglic beats Vingegaard in a Vuelta he would value it more than a Giro.

Indeed, it's the way he did it, the opposition, and the level op the opposition. The TDS he won was also against Evenepoel, but he wasn't in great shape, while now he actually is which makes the win more impressive.

 

[Brullnux]

I'd place the groups fairly close to each other overall but Amstel is arguably the most prestigious of it's class while Switserland at this point may be the least prestigious if we go by it's palmares the last 15 years.

I'm biased because I don't rate one-week races as highly as others, but I think fundamentally riders are much more likely to target races like Strade Bianche, Ghent-Wevelgem, E3, and Amstel than Switzerland, or even other one week races outside of maybe Paris-Nice. One week races act as prep for races in 1-4 months' time, normally, which diminishes their importance.

 

[Red Rick]

I'm biased because I don't rate one-week races as highly as others, but I think fundamentally riders are much more likely to target races like Strade Bianche, Ghent-Wevelgem, E3, and Amstel than Switzerland, or even other one week races outside of maybe Paris-Nice. One week races act as prep for races in 1-4 months' time, normally, which diminishes their importance.

They really aren't prep races at all, they are largely targets for different riders. Plenty of riders mainly target the stage races in the spring and then show up for the Ardennes as an afterthought. In fact, not one of the winners of the spring GC races is even showing up for the Ardennes which they're supposed to be prep races for. Yes, Jorgenson a very 1 day heavy schedule, but he specifically targeted Paris Nice within that schedule.

And I really don't see how we can treat E3 as a race that is actively targeted when it is 100% the main prep race for the real target and everyone races it because of it's low opportunity cost. And that's really the big differentiator. Most GC riders don't go for more than 2 WT stage races in the spring while classics riders can do like 5 one day races below the monuments. And even despite that, GW is usually skipped by RVV contenders, Fleche and Amstel have both had some rather poor fields in recent years too. Strade is beloved by fans but mostly it's just Pogacar showing up and killing an otherwise B-tier field as a training ride.

 

[RedheadDane]

Not doing Suisse either. From FB:

"Sadly, I won’t be racing Tour de Suisse either.
A few days ago, I shared that I’d been off the bike for about a week with a stomach infection, but that I was back training and starting to rebuild my strength and rhythm. Not long after, the illness came back - more intense than before, but fortunately it passed quickly. We’ve done a number of tests and are still waiting on some results to get a clearer picture of what’s been going on.
After speaking with the team and my coach, we made the call not to race Tour de Suisse. There just isn’t enough time to get back to the level I want to be at. The focus now is on recovering properly, finding rhythm again, and rebuilding what I lost. Everything from here is about being ready for the Tour de France.

- Vi har taget stressen fra ham, siger Kim A. om Skjelmose

Kim Andersen fortæller nærmere om beslutningen om at tage Mattias Skjelmose ud af Schweiz Rundt-holdet

www.feltet.dk

The new plan is either the Andorra race, or Copenhagen, and given his rider type I'd guess Andorra.

 

[Boehmand]

Not doing Suisse either. From FB:

- Vi har taget stressen fra ham, siger Kim A. om Skjelmose

Kim Andersen fortæller nærmere om beslutningen om at tage Mattias Skjelmose ud af Schweiz Rundt-holdet

www.feltet.dk

The new plan is either the Andorra race, or Copenhagen, and given his rider type I'd guess Andorra.

Hadn't heard of that race before - it's a hard 1-day route

Stage profiles Andorra MoraBanc Clàssica 2025 One day race

Stage profile, mountains profiles, final five kilometre profile, race map, steepness percentage profiles for Andorra MoraBanc Clàssica 2025.

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[Boehmand]

Skjelmose saying the top priority at the Tour is a stage win - but he will try to do top 10 on GC as well. His DS Kim Andersen said a similar thing in an interview Sunday.

To me that seems like a flawed strategy (not least without a single other climber in the team), as him losing time would probably be a prerequitise to him winning a stage - unless he can stick with Pogacar and Vingegaard in the mountains and beat them on the line - which would logically mean he should shoot for the podium, not just top 10

I'd say his goal should be a stage and polka dots, and then he can do GC when he has a team for it.

Ét mål overskygger det andet for Skjelmose

Hvad er Mattias Skjelmoses vigtigste ambition i Tour de France?

www.feltet.dk

 

[titan31]

Skjelmose saying the top priority at the Tour is a stage win - but he will try to do top 10 on GC as well. His DS Kim Andersen said a similar thing in an interview Sunday.

To me that seems like a flawed strategy (not least without a single other climber in the team), as him losing time would probably be a prerequitise to him winning a stage - unless he can stick with Pogacar and Vingegaard in the mountains and beat them on the line - which would logically mean he should shoot for the podium, not just top 10

I'd say his goal should be a stage and polka dots, and then he can do GC when he has a team for it.

Ét mål overskygger det andet for Skjelmose

Hvad er Mattias Skjelmoses vigtigste ambition i Tour de France?

www.feltet.dk

I dunno. I sort of think Pog and Jonas will be so far ahead that all the other GC guys will be going in breaks anyway, so likes of Skelmose, O'Connor, Gall, Martinez etc are all probably going to lose time and be in breaks as won't be a danger to UAE or Visma

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Some of these guys will likely insist on going for a top 10 and will leave it way too late to drop time to have a chance of a stagewin.
Zone out and follow wheels.

View: https://youtu.be/p-9-3DtUzug

 

[titan31]

Some of these guys will likely insist on going for a top 10 and will leave it way too late to drop time to have a chance of a stagewin.
Zone out and follow wheels.

View: https://youtu.be/p-9-3DtUzug

I dunno. The way the route is, they'll all probably be ages behind after the MTT.

Pog will be putting ages into them after the ITT, Hautacam and the MTT.

I could see likes of Remco and Roglic not being in breaks but some of these others are going to be miles off

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Waiting for the MTT is too late imo. Gotta prepare almost from the get go. Save energy as much as possible and be very selective with the attacks. Somebody should call a GC wannabe grupetto from stage 1.

 

[Boehmand]

I dunno. I sort of think Pog and Jonas will be so far ahead that all the other GC guys will be going in breaks anyway, so likes of Skelmose, O'Connor, Gall, Martinez etc are all probably going to lose time and be in breaks as won't be a danger to UAE or Visma

Roglic and Evenepoel are there too - they are not going to let any viable top 10 candidate hit breaks.

I also think neither UAE nor Visma is either, because there is always the fear of the unknown - like a dog crossing the road at the wrong time - and then time given up easily will become a problem.

 

[Boehmand]

Waiting for the MTT is too late imo. Gotta prepare almost from the get go. Save energy as much as possible and be very selective with the attacks. Somebody should call a GC wannabe grupetto from stage 1.

It doesn't have to be from stage 1, there isn't really a stage for climbers until stage 12 to Hautacam anyway.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

It doesn't have to be from stage 1, there isn't really a stage for climbers until stage 12 to Hautacam anyway.

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.

 

[laarsland]

I foresee a conundrum on whether to rename this into "The bald assassin" by 2027.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I foresee a conundrum on whether to rename this into "The bald assassin" by 2027.

Better than being a bald fraud I suppose.

 

[hayneplane]

Skjelmose saying the top priority at the Tour is a stage win - but he will try to do top 10 on GC as well. His DS Kim Andersen said a similar thing in an interview Sunday.

To me that seems like a flawed strategy (not least without a single other climber in the team), as him losing time would probably be a prerequitise to him winning a stage - unless he can stick with Pogacar and Vingegaard in the mountains and beat them on the line - which would logically mean he should shoot for the podium, not just top 10

I'd say his goal should be a stage and polka dots, and then he can do GC when he has a team for it.

Ét mål overskygger det andet for Skjelmose

Hvad er Mattias Skjelmoses vigtigste ambition i Tour de France?

www.feltet.dk

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.

 

[Gratemans]

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.

Teams want the UCI points a top 10 brings, that's about the gist of it imo.

 

[hayneplane]

Teams want the UCI points a top 10 brings, that's about the gist of it imo.

Hardly a concern for Lidl Trek as a top 5 overall team year round.