Skjelmose in disbelief: “The podium was enough for me, instead I won”

Berg en Terblijt (Holland), 20 April 2025 - La Easter of cycling is full of surprises. Thanks to the'Amstel Gold Race 2025, which uncovers the vulnerable (and perhaps tired) side of Tadej pogacar despite the attack launched on 42,5 km from the finish line and the brave one instead of Mattjas Skjelmose, which in fact starts the pursuit then conducted with Remco Evenepoel before collecting the maximum possible turnover in a theoretically very unfavorable situation.

Skjelmose's statements

 As expected, the same Danish one Lidl Trek that he thought he had in Thibau Nys the good card to fool the favourites is incredulous of the 12st success in his career and above all how he matured. "I still don't believe it. In the end on Cauberg I was at the limit: I was left behind evenepoel and I didn't think I'd do something like that. Honestly, I would have been happy with the podium and in fact my first goal was to keep away the group that was recovering from behind to try to secure the podium". Skjelmose, always with extreme sincerity and not without tears in the final part of his speech in front of microphones and notebooks, then analyses in more detail the sprint that decided the Beer Classic, not new to offering decidedly surprising results. "Remco it started at the right time and in the right way. The wind was coming from the left: Tadej he moved and I tried to follow him. Then I don't know what happened in the end. I couldn't believe it: this victory means a lot to me because I just lost my grandfather and so the dedication is all for him".

The statements of Evenepoel and Pogacar

 Not just the accident at the beginning of December: evenepoel also chews bitterly for what happened at the dawn of this day, namely a fall that apparently had no major consequences. "Without that accident and the subsequent waste of energy to get back in, today I could have faced the final in a much more aggressive way. But these are the consequences of what can happen in a race". Also pogacar, the main disappointment of the day for how the race went, tries to give himself explanations that almost sound like justifications, without taking away any credit from the one who won the sprint by practically more than half a wheel. "It was a very nice race. In the last 15 km I had a headwind and so I was unable to gain on the pursuers. I decided to wait and try to beat the other two in the sprint, but it was a gamble: simply, today Skjelmose he was the strongest."

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