{"id":167665,"date":"2025-09-29T08:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/167665\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T08:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:13:08","slug":"how-tough-was-the-world-championship-lidl-trek-trio-that-just-missed-the-podium-explains-while-groaning-and-gasping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/167665\/","title":{"rendered":"How tough was the World Championship? Lidl-Trek trio that just missed the podium explains while groaning and gasping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bit by bit, the podium for the World Cycling Championships<\/a> became clear on Sunday. With 105 kilometers to go, the unstoppable Tadej Pogacar<\/a> attacked, Remco Evenepoel<\/a> took silver with 20 kilometers left, and with 5 kilometers to go, Ben Healy<\/a> claimed bronze. The numbers four, five, and six? Lidl-Trek<\/a> men Mattias Skjelmose<\/a>, Toms Skujins<\/a>, and Giulio Ciccone<\/a>.During the World Cycling Championships in Rwanda, Skujins had to let the reigning world champion go early on. However, the Latvian still emerged as the winner from the group with Juan Ayuso (Spain), Isaac del Toro (Mexico), and Ciccone, with whom he chased the podium. \u201cI did my best, but the medals had already been decided,\u201d the Latvian said realistically to Eurosport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The classics specialist suffered: \u201cIt was like a triathlon, everyone finished on their own.\u201d He therefore found it logical that last year’s world champion also crossed the line solo this year. \u201cHe has once again shown that he is the best in the world. I didn’t get to see much of it, but Tadej was at such a high level. I didn’t have the legs to follow him, but few do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the podium slipping out of sight for the Latvian national champion, he was (and is) proud of his performance. \u201cI think I’m the world champion in the 70+ category, above 70 kilograms, that is,\u201d he laughed. \u201cI’ll have to settle for that, it was a good race,\u201d concluded last year’s number two in Strade Bianche, who also finished behind Tadej Pogacar.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

Skjelmose had to let Healy go after Pogacar and Evenepoel<\/p>\n

Four minutes before Skujins, his teammate at Lidl-Trek, Skjelmose, crossed the finish line. He, too, had suffered greatly. “It was all about who had the strongest legs, not tactics. Every time someone took the lead in the large group, someone at the back dropped off. It was very tough,” said the man who beat Pogacar and Evenepoel in this year’s Amstel Gold Race.<\/p>\n

That wasn’t possible on Sunday. The Danish leader ultimately had to acknowledge his superior in the Irishman Ben Healy. \u201cI thought I wouldn’t be dropped, but I also knew I was at my limit. But he had better legs, there was nothing I could do about it, and I was completely empty,\u201d Skjelmose analyzed the moment Healy attacked 5 kilometers from the finish line.<\/p>\n

So no medal in 2025, but the young Dane is not too concerned. \u201cOf course, I wanted to give the team and myself a medal, but that’s part of cycling. As a team, we did very well, and I’ve only just turned 25. Hopefully, I still have many world championships to come. It won’t be my last chance,\u201d the Dane concluded confidently.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

Ciccone completes Lidl-Trek podium after World Championship podiumBehind Skjelmose and Skujins, Ciccone sprinted to sixth place, giving Lidl-Trek the first three places after the World Championship podium. The Italian simply couldn’t do any better, according to Tutto Bici<\/a>. \u201cIt was one of the toughest days of my career,\u201d he said meaningfully. \u201cIt was unbearable and painful, and that was true for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think the altitude in Rwanda had much of an impact; it was more the weather that exhausted us kilometer after kilometer,\u201d said Ciccone. \u201cI held my own on Mount Kigali, which was the key moment. I felt good and had no problems on the Wall of Kigali either. When Remco attacked, it was perhaps a mistake to follow him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a race where you have to manage your energy so well, Evenepoel’s acceleration was too much for Ciccone. As a result, he was unable to keep up when the group for the remaining podium places was formed. \u201cWhen we got to the cobbles, I was completely frozen. I had to let go. Maybe a top-five finish would have been better, but I’m happy with myself and with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bit by bit, the podium for the World Cycling Championships became clear on Sunday. With 105 kilometers to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-167665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}