The day started with Mads Pedersen fighting to get in the breakaway like a man possess, believing his best chance at a stage win was to reach the inhuman ramps of Colle-sur-Loup ahead of the lightweight climbers. He was present in almost every attack, but it took almost 70 kilometres for the real breakaway to establish, which Pedersen bridged across to with on other rider to create a group of 10. Despite the relentless start, the breakaway had no option but to forge on, as Ineos had the idea to pull behind. Their pace spelt the end of the breakaway, but not of Pedersen who continued to pace for Skjelmose when he was brought back. The rest of the Lidl-Trek riders had been doing a fine job of looking after Skjelmose, keeping him well positioned ahead of the expected explosive finale.
When the peloton hit the devious double digit gradient at Colle-sur-Loup it didn’t take long for the best climbers to break clear, amongst them, Mattias Skjelmose. After covering the worst sections of the climb, as the legs were still stinging, Matteo Jorgensen (Visma Lease-a-Bike) decided to spring his attack. There was no immediate response from the rest of the favourites until Skjelmose decided to jump across, having rediscovered the kick he was missing in his first races of the season. Brandon McNulty followed, and shortly thereafter the trio were away with a widening gap. Skjelmose rode a savvy final, able to save his legs a little more as he knew that the two Americans had more to gain from the attack due to their higher position on GC. The Danish Champion launched his sprint from the back of the group, instantly gapping his rivals before lifting his hands to the sky in victory.
Thanks to the significant time gap to the chasing group, and the bonus seconds from the win, Skjelly skyrockets from 19th to 4th position in GC, with everything to play for at the weekend.
Speaking at the line, victorious Mattias Skjelmose said: “I am really happy and surprised. I was feeling quite good all day but, you know, these kinds of days are quite special and you need a lot of luck but, the Team worked perfectly for me and after, Mads was brought back from the breakaway, when the Team works like this it minimizes all the luck you need. When Matteo went I though that Remco or Primoz or one of the other guys higher up on the GC would close it but then, I tried pull a little bit and they let me go, or gave me a few meters, and then I just went off. Brandon then joined me and we were able to close to him. I love to race in France especially this area. I took an emotion win in Haut Var last year, which is really close to here also. I just love racing in this area. This is the first [victory] of the year for me and that’s always a special one.
Winning Paris-Nice? There’s bigger miracles that have happened in cycling but I think the other guys are strong than me today. I think today, it was a bit of a weird way to win because I played on being down on GC and them having such a big gap on me. It’s not necessarily a nice way to win and those guys were stronger than me today. I feel better than before I won Tour de Suisse last year and I think I am in a really good place right now. We lost time in the TTT but then maybe I wouldn’t have got the stage win today because they wouldn’t have let me go. I am happy where I am right now.
I really don’t know what I can do in the next days, it’s hard to say. I feel great, maybe the best feeling I ever had, and let’s see how far I can go. We will have two special days, looking to weather forecast. I would be happy to move further in GC but also keep the position I’m now. I came at Paris-Nice with the goal of GC, then we had the loss in the TTT and I refocused my target on stages. Now, I have a stage and still good placement in GC. I think we can finish this stuff really great.”
