Tour de France 2023, the bitterness of Mattias Skjelmose Jensen: “I struggled with back pain all day, at the beginning of the last climb I was out of energy”

The Pyrenees canceled their GC ambitions at the Tour de France 2023 Of Mattias Skjelmose Jensen. The Danish of Lidl Trek he finished the sixth stage almost 8 minutes behind the day’s winner Tadej Pogačar, thus ending up, at the moment, out of the Top 20 of the ranking. It wasn’t exactly a good day for the US team, as well Julius Ciccone he lost a lot of ground, arriving at the Cauterets finish line more than 10 minutes behind Pogačar: for the Lidl-Trek, therefore, the parameters on which to make tactical decisions in this Tour de France change quite a lot.

Skjelmose Jensen was conditioned by the fall suffered in the first kilometers of the fifth stage and by the consequent back pain, but the Dane is very direct in his analysis: “I’d like to blame the fall – his words after the stage – But we’ll never know whether I gave in because of that or because of a general collapse. I certainly had a lot of back pain today. After the Tourmalet I found myself alone, but I managed to close the gap from the group of other men in the standings. It is probable, however, that they were taking a breath, while I went full steam ahead”.

The Dane, winner of Tour of Switzerland 2023, he adds: “After all, on the last climb, I felt empty. There wasn’t much to do but carry the bike to the finish, but the last 5 kilometers were really tough for me. I suffered a lot”.

Skjelmose Jensen further reveals: “Before the stage I had met Jonas Vingegaard, who had anticipated that the Jumbo-Visma would have a tough race. He kept his promise. For the rest of us – jokes the Dane – it will be a long journey to Paris, if they continue to keep up this pace”.