Mattias Skjelmose signs contract extension with Lidl-Trek

The racing season has barely started but the transfer merry-go-round waits for no one, with teams, riders and agents already looking at prospects for 2025 and beyond. One rider that won’t be in the news in terms of links to rival teams, however, is Mattias Skjelmose, with the Dane penning a new contract at Lidl-Trek that will tie him to the American squad for the next two years.

The 23-year-old looked to be coming into this year with a contract that was due to expire at the end of 2024 but GCN understands that new terms were agreed upon right at the end of last season, meaning that Skjelmose inked an extension that will keep him in Lidl-Trek colours until the end of 2026.

The new deal is welcome news for Lidl-Trek, who have kept one of their most promising riders despite a wave of new arrivals over the last winter.

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Skjelmose joined the team in 2020 but it wasn’t until 2021 that he began to really show his WorldTour talent with a string of top-10, including sixth at the UAE Tour. The following year saw him pick up several podiums and make his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d’Italia. 

Last year he kicked on again, winning the Tour de Suisse and racing his first Tour de France. This year he will make his racing debut at the Faun-Ardèche Classic later this month, and will be handed a GC leadership role at the Vuelta a España later this year.

"I want to combine the Ardennes and the Grand Tours. That’s a possibility that looks really good to me," he told GCN at Lild-Trek’s training camp in December.

"Of course, leading a Grand Tour team means you need special riders around you and with Lidl coming in we’ll slowly start to be a Grand Tour winning team. If I can be a Grand Tour winner, I would love it."