Skjelmose aims to be well-prepared for Liège: "I envision myself on the podium with Pogacar and Van der Poel"

Mattias Skjelmose found himself unexpectedly going viral on social media with footage showing his battle with hypothermia during La Flèche Wallonne. By the following day, the Danish cyclist from Lidl-Trek had recovered and was ready to speak to the international media about his primary objective this spring: Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which he had already scouted on Thursday.

"After the first ascent of the Mur de Huy, I was chilled to the bone, and I couldn’t recover from that," Skjelmose reflected on what happened to him on Wednesday. "While riding, I didn’t immediately realize I was hypothermic, even though I was shaking, but as soon as I stopped, I couldn’t control my movements. That was a frightening experience, but thankfully we have a great doctor who took care of me and warmed me up."

"It looked pretty extreme in those images, but fortunately, I was able to quickly inform my loved ones and had good people around me," said the Dane about the incident during La Flèche Wallonne. "It could have ended much worse. I was hypothermic, but my body temperature soon returned to normal. The fact that those images of me were released wasn't even that bad. It helped fans understand why so many riders dropped out of the race."

"The big problem was that everyone got so cold during that fifteen-minute storm that it was hard to reverse that for yourself," Skjelmose stated. "Should the extreme weather protocol have been applied? Maybe, but in the end, it was responsible enough to race in. It was just very bad for a brief moment. If I look at myself, I lost some weight last year. That helps in the heat, but in the cold, it's a different story."

Skjelmose is confident about his level for Liège-Bastogne-Liège

"Even though I didn’t make it to the final, I felt on the bike that I had good legs," the Dane continued. "I’ve checked the weather for Sunday about ten times since I woke up, so I will be well-prepared. My mistake was that I wasn’t well-prepared on Wednesday, while teams like Uno-X were. The influence of the race on Liège-Bastogne-Liège could be felt: riders can obviously suffer."

For Sunday, Skjelmose still has plenty of ambition. "I felt very good in the Amstel Gold Race and know I'm in good form. I can honestly say I've never been better, so I truly believe I can compete for a podium spot on Sunday. Having Tadej Pogacar in the race works in my favor. He likes a tough race, and that’s good for me, so I can definitely see myself on the podium with Tadej and Mathieu van der Poel."