Just three days after abandoning Il Lombardia as a previous back issue came back to haunt him, Mattias Skjelmose couldn't help but laugh when asked exactly why he was racing at the Tour of Guangxi for Lidl-Trek, as the WorldTour calendar comes to a close.
The starting field in China often features a mix of strong sprinters, up-and-coming climbers, and many either approaching the end of their careers or hoping they can earn an extension thanks to solid results.
But a rider of the calibre of Skjelmose – who is on a very elite list of riders to have beaten Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel in the same race this season – is more of a rarity on the Guangxi start list, especially given how a herniated disc in his back, which is what forced him to end his season early this last time this year, is troubling him once again.
He starts as one of the GC favourites, nevertheless, alongside the likes of Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike), but is he confident of going home with the red jersey? Not particularly.
"I don't know, the back is still pretty fucked, so we will see what I can do. Maybe I do 10 kilometres, maybe I do the whole race, only time will tell," Skjelmose told Cyclingnews before stage 1 in Fangchenggang, after pleasing several fans with time for photos.
"I think it would be really ambitious to say we will go for the GC now with the back, but, of course, we will try. We did a 30-hour journey, so it would be a shame to DNF the first day."
Fortunately, Skjelmose did complete the first stage, finishing 83rd as Paul Magnier won in a sprint.
Racing in Guangxi certainly isn't for everyone, with the lengthy travel and extension of the season in Europe into a late east Asian fixture prompting Skjelmose's future teammate, Juan Ayuso, to earn his way out of dutiful leadership in Guangxi by winning two stages of the Vuelta a España.
Put simply to him the question of just why exactly the team had selected him for the race, Skjelmose said: "I cannot tell you, it was not my choice," he laughed, before then toeing the party line, which suggested it was a decision made long before the final weeks of the WorldTour.
"But the team said I should be here, and in normal circumstances it would be a chance to win a WorldTour race, and that's always nice.
"Also – I mean, now it's a bit unlikely that we can overtake Visma – but at some point, it was really close to fighting for second place in the [UCI] team ranking, and that would have meant a lot to us, so I think that was the reason for it."
While it's been a season of very high highs and quite low lows for the Dane, from his Amstel Gold Race triumph to several crash-interrupted blocks of racing, he had been showing signs of his best in recent weeks, with fourth at a gruelling World Championships road race in Rwanda and seventh at the Euros. But Lombardy suggested that his body was just about ready for the off-season and some time off the bike.
"The travel was quite long. We arrived at the hotel yesterday morning, but it was OK. It was the plan already, and I really pushed to do Lombardy, so that's how it is," he said, before explaining where things went wrong on Saturday.
"Quite early in the race, my herniated disc started to annoy me again, and I had to abandon the race. It was quite sad as I was looking forward to racing Lombardy; it was my last big goal, but the body told me no."
While he will, of course, do as the team has asked him and try to win the race in Guangxi, his words suggest that he's ready for a reset and to begin his build back up to top form for 2026, where he will compete with Ayuso for leadership in the biggest appointments.
"Since my crash in the Tour, I had for the first time the whole year a consistent block of training without any setbacks and distractions, and I think that really shows in the races I did," said Skjelmose.
"Also, racing with the national team, only having Danish people around, and really getting my Danish humour out, gave me a mental boost and gave me the confidence I could continue long into the end of the season.
"Now the back is the problem again, and that's something we need to find a solution for, but with the level I showed at Worlds and Amstel this year, after this race I can take a good break and I'm quite motivated for next year already."
