Skjelmose said in an interview with maybe the Danish press that he was cooked and expected to be left behind on Cauberg the last time, so I think he just had nothing left.
All the more reasons not to relay in the last 5 miles or so, then... They had a huge gap over the chasers, who had stopped chasing long ago (more or less when they caught Grégoire, even a bit before, once he was just a few seconds before them and letting himself recover a bit before being caught).
It was a case where there was absolutely no reason to collaborate: there was nothing to win, nothing to save, by collaborating. There was no GC at play, and he could have finished in wheelie and still not get caught by the Cosnefroy group.
The worse thing that could happen to him if he stopped relaying, was attacked and dropped, was to finish 2^nd^.
The worse thing that could happen to him if he attacked and blew up, was to finish 2^nd^.
The worst thing that could happen if he refused to relay after the Cauberg and to lead in the final km, was to finish 2^nd^.
He finished 2^nd^. And didn't even piss Remco off for our enjoyment 😃 And that's the biggest reason for to blame Skjelmose! 🤣
What's most ironical, is that Skjelmose used to have the reputation of being an horrible wheelsucker. After having progressively lost this habit, he now cannot remember how to perform it any more! 🤣🤣
On a side note, I don't know if any of them could ascertain whether they were really cooked or not: they had maintained this same regular pace for 20 km or so. Beside a few slight accelerations by Evenepoel, there was no attack, no test to know how they could respond or not. Sometimes an attack can 'unlock' your legs from a numbing pace. Actually if we enlarge the picture, there was basically only a single attack in the whole race at the top-guys level: the one by Grégoire at more than 40 km, which sealed the fate of the race; the rest was only decided by Vauquelin's crash and later by Grégoire not following the pace after making a stupidly, pointlessly strong relay on the flat preceding the climb where he would be dropped.
I was impressed by Albert Withen Philipsen, he’s only 19. Not Seixas levels of impressed, but still a strong performance for a young man in a race over 200 km.
Vastly over 200 km, yes! Given Skjelmose's presence at the front, he just had to stay in the wheels all along, but I think he chased a couple of attacks, didn't he?
Do you know how Kragh Andersen was expelled from the group? The two Spaniards Bilbao and Izagirre had a puncture, and Baudin blew up after he helped Cosnefroy and also attacked at some point.
Coming back to Withen. Reflecting a bit more about this chase group, I don't know how we should grade the performance, in fact; and the same applies to Costiou. If we look at the group, quite a few no-names were in it: I am thinking of the two Alpecin riders who are laso young and (so far) rather anonymous; and there was Frigo and its 250 km breakaway who was not only holding fine in the wheels, but had enough left to attack a couple of times. We had Costiou himself, who was beaten by many Pro-Team riders a week earlier. The majority of the guys in the group only sucked wheels for 30 km, too. Then there is the general context as well: the weakest startlist in ages on Amstel (in PCS terms, the weakest in 30 years! and even then there were more top guys), and then the present top contenders were decimated by Vauquelin's crash (broken collarbone for Jorgenson on his first race in a while, BTW...) The only rider who stood out is Cosnefroy, as he pulled the group the most, and still managed to win the sprint; it's hard to judge other riders' performances.
Anyway, the validation for long races holds. I just mean that the configuration of the race today was special, and perhaps our first impression about the performance of the members of this group was a bit too flattering and may give excessively high hopes for future races.
I don't know what happened to Laporte either. A crash, I presume. First Visma rider: 100^th^ 🧐