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Mattias Skjelmose takes over Tour de Suisse lead with summit finish victory

Canada's Zukowsky again in the breakaway

June 13, 2023
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Another Great Dane in the WorldTeams, Mattias Skjelmose of Trek-Segafredo, triumphed on Tuesday’s first summit finish of the 86th Tour de Suisse to take over the race lead from Stage 1 winner Stefan Küng. After earning his first WorldTour win Skjelmose now leads Remco Evenepoel by 17 seconds. Hugo Houle was the top Canadian in 33rd, although his compatriot Nick Zukowsky was in the spotlight again, riding a breakaway to more KOM points.

The Course

Tuesday was all about two Cat. 1 climbs, the sting in the tail. First came Col des Mosses peaking 33 km from the finish line. The summit finish was Villars-sur-Ollon, 10.7 km at 7.8 percent. The climb was wet.

Nick Zukowsky obviously wasn’t satisfied with his big day out on Monday, as the KOM leader got into Tuesday’s breakaway quartet as well. If his merry band could survive to the top of Col des Mosses and he could bag some more points, he would reinforce his slender mountains classification lead. He told an interviewer before the stage, “I’m still looking to be aggressive, and hopefully you’ll see me up there again today.”

Clad in the red climber’s jersey, Zukowsky again lit out in a breakaway.

The foursome started up Col des Mosses with only a 2:00 lead and 13.5 km to climb in the rain. The fugitives survived the first Cat. 1 ascent, and Zukowsky added eight KOM points to his nine but tipping over second.

There was a slick, 17-km descent of the Col des Mosses. The Canadian was the last escapee standing on the way to the valley.

Villars-sur-Ollon

Van Aert was interested in the intermediate sprint in Ollon, accelerating to claim it. Evenepoel’s teammate set a fast pace, unhitching Van Aert. Alexey Lutsenko and Sergio Higuita also dropped away. With 6.4 km to climb Evenepoel attacked, and Küng immediately fell back. Skjelmose and Felix Gall were able to go with the world champion, but they didn’t work with him.

A chasing sextet toiled to bridge over. As the chase closed in, first Gall and then Skjelmose skipped away. Juan Ayuso, Wilco Keldermann, Pello Bilbao and Rigoberto Uran finally ran down Evenepoel. As soon as Gall and Skjelson united, Ayuso made a bid to bridge over.

Skjelmose then dumped Gall and took the win and the yellow jersey.

More mountains are on tap for Wednesday, with an uncategorized rise to the line in Leukerbad.

2023 Tour de Suisse Stage 3
1) Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark/Trek-Segafredo) 3:29:14
2) Felix Gall (Austria/AG2R Citroën) +0:03
3) Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) +0:12
33) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +3:18

2023 Tour de Suisse GC
1) Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark/Trek-Segafredo) 7:36:31
2) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Soudal-QuickStep) +0:17
3) Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) +0:24
31) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +3:59