‘We wanted to seek the limit and we found it’: Skjelmose calls time on 2026 season

The Lidl-Trek rider confirmed on Instagram that he will not race again this year, with recovery now taking priority after a season in which he felt he reached a new level without converting it into the results he had hoped for.

“That’s it for me this year,” Skjelmose wrote. “The Vuelta ended up way harder than I thought. We wanted to seek the limit and I can proudly say we found it.”

The Dane went into the second half of the season on the back of the strongest Tour de France performance of his career. Skjelmose finished sixth overall in July, having previously failed to finish the 2025 edition and placed 29th on his Tour debut in 2023. He was also third in the stage 16 individual time trial and recorded five other top ten stage finishes during this year’s race.

Rather than ending his Grand Tour programme there, Skjelmose returned to competition at the Vuelta less than a month later.

The second three week race proved a different experience. Skjelmose remained around the top ten for much of the race, sitting sixth overall after stage 11, but gradually slipped down the standings during the second half before finishing 13th in Madrid.

The experience has left the 26-year-old unsure whether pushing through both Grand Tours will ultimately prove beneficial.

“Was it worth it? Hard to say,” he wrote. “Only time will tell.”

The Dane was equally conflicted about his season as a whole.

On paper, there was plenty to underline Skjelmose’s progress. Before the Grand Tours, he finished seventh overall at the Volta a Catalunya, second at the Amstel Gold Race and fifth at La Flèche Wallonne. He also took sixth overall at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in his final stage race before the Tour.

Yet there was one notable absence from Skjelmose’s 2026 campaign. Despite repeatedly finishing close to the front in some of the calendar’s biggest races, he did not add a victory to his palmarès. His most recent wins remain his three successes from 2025, including the Amstel Gold Race.

For Skjelmose, those near misses left their mark.

“I can’t really say I’m happy with my season,” he wrote. “In general I found a new level, but always felt like I was missing out on the big results.”

“For now it’s about recovery for next year,” Skjelmose added. “Thank you for all the people that supported me this year, I couldn’t have done it without you.

“On to the next one!”