Lidl-Trek sports director unhappy with team after Skjelmose is left isolated: ‘They should have been up there’

Skjelmose was forced to fend for himself when the race reached its decisive phase, with none of his climbing support still alongside him as the general classification contenders began to make their moves.

While Skjelmose himself played down the lack of support after the finish, Andersen was far less forgiving.

“They should have been up there,” Andersen told TV 2 Sport. “It’s not good enough.”

The Danish sports director stressed that he had not expected Mads Pedersen to survive with the favourites on a 25 kilometre climb, but said other riders in the Lidl Trek line up were selected precisely to support Skjelmose in the mountains.

“I don’t think it is disappointing that Mads [Pedersen] isn’t up there on a 25 kilometre mountain, but we have some other riders who are supposed to be a little better in the mountains,” Andersen said. “They should have been up there.”

The lack of support became more significant when Skjelmose began to struggle on the final ascent.

He eventually conceded 38 seconds to the main group of general classification rivals behind a dominant Tadej Pogačar, who won the stage and extended his overall lead.

Despite the setback, Andersen was not overly concerned by Skjelmose’s own performance.

“Of course it would have been more fun if he had stayed in the group,” he said. “But where Mattias finished is not something that ruins the day for us. It is a little disappointing that the others weren’t there.”

Skjelmose was similarly calm about his time loss, suggesting he may still be feeling the effects of the Tour de France.

“My legs feel a bit more sluggish than usual,” Skjelmose told TV 2 after the stage.

“My body felt okay. I struggled a little when I had to go really deep. I don’t know, maybe I can still feel the Tour. I just need to get going. I’m not too worried.”

The Dane also pointed to his Vuelta campaign two years ago as a reason not to panic after one difficult day.

“I also had a pretty poor start in 2024, and that ended up going quite well.”

Skjelmose’s result actually moved him up 13 places in the overall standings, despite losing time to several of his main rivals.

He now sits eighth overall, 45 seconds behind Primož Roglič in second place. Enric Mas, Sepp Kuss and Oscar Onley are also ahead of the Lidl-Trek leader, while Pogačar has already opened a gap of around four minutes at the top of the standings.