Mattias Skjelmose he doesn’t abandon his hopes of a podium at Tour of Switzerland 2024. After the difficulties he had during the fifth stage, the rider of Lidl – Trek he managed to recover and finish the next two stages convincingly, consolidating himself in fourth place in the general classification on the eve of the final hill climb. With a gap of 59″ from third place occupied by Egan Bernal (Ineos – Grenadiers) and a lead of only 12″ on Matthew Riccitello (Israel – Premier Tech) the 15.7 kilometers against the clock from Aigle to Villars-sur-Ollon will be decisive to establish the final ranking behind the UAE Team Emirates duo made up of Adam Yates and from Joao Almeida now on the run towards victory.
The Danish national champion, interviewed after the stage, admitted that he had not had the best day, but at the same time he threw down the gauntlet in view of the time trial in which he says he is ready to win: “My legs weren’t that great , but looking at the performance it was ok, it could have been much worse. I just did some damage control, but I think I did a good job. I don’t care if I finish fourth or fifth in the standings, I believe I can win the time trial. I feel good and although today perhaps wasn’t my best day, perhaps also due to the long journey we made in the car this morning, I think that tomorrow my legs will be much better and I am convinced that I can do something special“.
In conclusion, the native of Copenhagen then spoke about his plans after the conclusion of this Tour of Switzerland, with attention already focused on his great seasonal goal, the Vuelta a España: “After the Tour of Switzerland I will do the national championships, both road and time trial, then the road race in Paris and then I won’t race again until the Vuelta, I’ll just do a lot of altitude training”.
