Could Skjelmose steal the polka dot jersey this Tour de France?

Skjelmose is a rider who is known to speak from the heart, and this was no different two days before the Tour de France start. An infection repeatedly set him back in the run-up to the race. “At first, we didn’t really know what it was. I just kept getting sick on and off, and that really killed my motivation a bit.”

“At one point, there was a morning where I just sat staring for an hour on the couch and didn’t even want to make myself breakfast,” said the Dane. “My wife eventually managed to pull me through it.” Ahead of the Tour, he did ride one race, which he also won, in Andorra.

However, he doesn’t see that as an ideal benchmark. “Eighty percent of the peloton came from Occitanie and had to travel a long way to get to Andorra. I was really motivated and had already been at altitude for five weeks, so that helped me a lot there. Of course, I would have preferred to win by a minute, although I still beat some strong riders. Enric Mas, for example, had finished sixth in the Dauphiné just before.”

“It’s hard to say exactly where I stand right now. I only have my own form as a benchmark, and when I looked at the Tour of Switzerland and the Dauphiné, the pace there was insanely high,” said the Amstel Gold Race winner. “Harder than ever. I’ve done everything as well as I could under the circumstances, and we’ll see if that’s enough to achieve something.”

“What I want to achieve is also hard to say,” he admitted. “The first week is very tough, especially since I’ll have to do it alone. After the time trial, I’ll see where I stand, but I also wouldn’t mind if I have to focus on stage wins or the mountains jersey. In the first week, we’ll go for Thibau, because he’s practically here for those stages. He’s our best option there.”

“My illness hasn’t helped my outlook on this Tour. I’m starting here without support on the flat, so that makes it difficult,” continued Skjelmose, who was originally aiming for a GC result. His bodyguard, Otto Vergaerde, for example, was left at home. “It was a tough decision, but Jonathan is the main man and he’s getting full support. The fact that we don’t have many climbers is also reflected in the team. I’ve had Otto by my side in every race so far, and I think we’ll see him in the Tour in the future.”

While his teammates are mainly targeting the first part of the race, Skjelmose hopes to show himself in the second half of the Tour. “I took the gamble of spending seven weeks at altitude for this Tour, and hopefully that pays off in the final part. I’ve never really gone for stage wins before, and maybe it would be cool to try that. I don’t have any pressure from the team. GC isn’t the main goal, and I think winning a stage and the mountains jersey would be a big success for me.”

Skjelmose has already studied the points system for the mountains classification. “There are a lot of tough mountain stages. The Col de la Loze has double points and it comes at the end of a stage, so Jonas or Tadej could end up taking those points, which would make it harder. But it’s a good Tour for the polka dot jersey because there aren’t many points awarded in the first week. I’m not going to do everything just to finish top fifteen in the GC if I can go for the mountains jersey and stage wins,” he reiterated.

“Danish riders have a good history with the polka dot jersey, with Bjarne Riis and Michael Rasmussen as winners. And Magnus Cort and Michael Morkov have also worn it recently,” he recited. “In 2023, I helped Giulio Ciccone win the mountains classification, and I really enjoyed doing that. It looked good on him, so maybe it would look good on me too.”