Leopard Pro Cycling adds Skjelmose Jensen to the 2020 team
Danish talent Mattias Skjelmose Jensen has penned a deal with Leopard Pro Cycling. The 19-year-old joins the Luxembourgish UCI Continental side and is the fifth signing prior to the 2020 campaign.
Denmark is known for its young prospects and Skjelmose Jensen is one of them. Being a stage race specialist with both good climbing and time trial skills, the youngster showed already his first glimpses of brilliance in 2017 in tough junior races such as the Internationale Niedersachsen Rundfahrt (5th in the GC). As if it was just regular business, Skjelmose Jensen had also a very strong first part to the 2018 season. The junior took third at Paris-Roubaix, finished second at the Course de la Paix after three top five stage results. Later, he also took the overall win at the Swiss Tour du Pays de Vaud stage race.
Since then, Skjelmose Jensen endured a forced break of racing after failing a doping test. After the investigation that this positive test result was caused by a food-supplement contamination his ban was reduced to 10 months. A sentence that Mattias completely backs as he as an athlete is solely responsible for choice of products he consumes. This is a message Mattias now passes on to any young and upcoming athlete in his surroundings and of course also his teammates at Leopard Pro Cycling. After this period with difficult moments, Skjelmose Jensen came back to racing in May of this year. In the races he did - as part of a Danish amateur team -, the youngster finished fourth at the U23 Danish Time Trial Championships and third at the Fyen Rundt, a UCI 1.2 race. All in all, promising results that led to the fact that he is back in the Danish national team for 2020, which also paved the way for this talent to join Leopard Pro Cycling.
Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
"By joining Leopard Pro Cycling, I will be a part of one of the best development teams in the world, which will hopefully help me evolve as a rider. This team has a very solid setup and is a perfect, safe environment for young riders. I am looking forward to the first team camps and especially to meet all the other riders and staff. Last year I have learned a lot. The intoxication has put me through some very difficult moments and therefore, I would like to advise all young riders to never take any supplements such as multivitamins, if you are not 100% sure if it is exactly what it says it is. I am very fortunate that I have people around me that have faith in me. This helps me to get through difficult moments and all I want is to repay them for their trust. In 2020 I want to perform well in big races, such as the Tour de l'Avenir and the World Championships."
Markus Zingen, Team Manager
"We are happy that we are able to welcome such a strong talent as Mattias to our team. In all honesty, we hesitated first, because one can't just simply ignore his suspension. As Leopard Pro Cycling is of course 100% against doping, we took our time in making this decision. After gathering a lot of opinions and - most important - necessary background information, we came to the conclusion that we could take Mattias in the team. Now, it's important to leave the history behind and focus on the 2020 season that is up ahead. We are convinced that Mattias will perform well for us and we will of course do our very best to support him and his teammates throughout the year."
Partners Cycling
