2023-06-18 18:58:06
The young Danish rider won the general classification ahead of Juan Ayuso and Remco Evenepoel on Sunday.
Since the death of Gino Mäder, after his fall on the 5th stage, no one really had the head for cycling on the Tour de Suisse. But since the race had to end, in memory of the late Bahrain-Victorious rider, he needed a winner. And it was finally the Dane Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Trek-Segafredo) who won the general classification of the event, Sunday June 18, ahead of Juan Ayuso (UAE) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step).
Although this is his first overall success in a World Tour-classified stage race, the promising Danish climber obviously did not overflow with joy at the finish of the 8th stage. Second in the final time trial between Saint-Gall and Abtwil (25 km), Skjelmose held the shock in what is not his favorite exercise to resist the returns of his two pursuers. At 22, he won the 6th professional victory of his career, two weeks before the Tour de France, on which he is expected as leader of the Lidl-Trek team. But history will unfortunately remember above all the disappearance of Gino Mäder.
A stage neutralized in homage, and abandonments
Since its fall in the descent of the Albula Pass on Thursday, the Tour de Suisse has shifted into another atmosphere. Found inert in the water and resuscitated on the spot, the runner died the next day in Chur hospital, from where, sad symbol, the 6th stage was to start. The strong emotion aroused by this disappearance led to the neutralization of this stage, which was transformed into a commemorative procession in memory of Gino Mäder, with the agreement of his family.
Friday evening, while the rest of the race was logically on hold, the organization announced that the Tour de Suisse would go to its end. “in consultation with the family of Gino Mäder” et “after having consulted the teams and the riders as well as all the staff of the Tour de Suisse”. The co-director of the event, Oliver Senn, added the same evening: “Today was the worst day of my life. But tomorrow is another day and that’s what we have to deal with as an organization.”
It is therefore by coming to an end that the Tour de Suisse wanted to honor the memory of the native of the canton of Saint-Gall, the starting city of the final stage this Sunday. A classic decision, in this case, but which was not followed by the whole peloton, which is also understandable. Gino Mader’s team, the Bahrain-Victorious, withdrew from the event on Friday evening, followed by the Belgian team Intermarché-Circus-Wanty, and the Swiss from Tudor, who justified their choice: “After careful consideration and discussion with the riders and the staff, the team has decided not to continue participating in the Tour de Suisse this year. In these difficult circumstances, we believe it is human to respect the feelings of our riders and pay tribute to Gino.”
Most of the Swiss riders involved have taken the same decision, like Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Marc Hirschi (UAE Emirates), Mauro Schmid (Soudal-Quick Step) or even Michael Schär (AG2R-Citroën). To gently restart the race and reassure a peloton traumatized by the fatal fall of Gino Mader in the descent, the organization had also decided to freeze the timing of Saturday’s stage at 25 km from the finish, at the top of the last difficulty of the day. This did not prevent Remco Evenepoel from leaving alone at 17 km to win the stage, without a yellow jersey at the end, but with his index finger pointing skyward.
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