Toms Skujiņš (Lidl-Trek) has been one of the top performers of the early season, lighting up racing in the lead group at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and taking a hard-fought second place at Strade Bianche, and it won’t be long before he’s back battling it out with the big one-day stars.
The Latvian’s form has earned him more time on the cobbles in spring, with a return to the bergs and helingen in Flanders pencilled in after he took on Wout van Aert and Visma-Lease a Bike’s super team at Opening Weekend.
Skujiņš eventually lost out to the Dutch side’s strength in numbers that day, as did the rest of the peloton, but his stinging attack on the Berendries was a sign of what he could do on the hardest parcours.
“I mean definitely Omloop already changed my program a little bit,” Skujiņš told Cyclingnews in Arrone ahead of stage 4 at Tirreno-Adriatico.
“I was not planning on going back to Belgium for the Cobbled Classics. But now we see that maybe it's worth it for me to go to the hillier ones, so I'll go back."
For now, Skujiņš has only Dwars door Vlaanderen on his programme, but Lidl-Trek haven’t got full provisional lineups set for E3 Saxo Classic, Gent-Wevelgem or the Tour of Flanders. There are limited spaces left, but Skujiņš could offer the perfect fit and a viable plan B or C option come the finales.
He is aware that unlike at Strade Bianche, where he was the designated leader ahead of the race, he’ll be more of a domestique in the cobbled Classics with Mads Pedersen the established focus for the team.
“Strade of course it was super nice to have the leadership,” said Skujiņš. “But when I go back to Belgium we have the ex-world champ, we have a bit of a different field there and it’s a different style of race as well - so I'll be more in support there.”
The two-time Latvian road champion has had success before, mainly in America where he racked up three stage wins at the now-defunct Tour of California.
This included his first and only WorldTour win which he followed up with a victory at Tre Valli Varesine, but that was in 2018 and his five wins since have all come at the Latvian national championships.
Strade Bianche showed just the calibre of rider he is capable of being as the first mere mortal to cross the line in Siena behind Tadej Pogačar after the Slovenian's incredible 81km solo move, even after a puncturing twice and crashing on the 215km route.
Something new has definitely clicked in 2024 for Skujiņš, although even he may not know what it is after making constant changes with his coach who he’s been with since 2016.
“I know the legs are there. I know that this winter has been super good, so now it's just using those opportunities that I get,” said the Latvian.
“Every year we change some things, play around with some things. Unfortunately, every year we change not just one thing but a few, it's always hard to pinpoint what exactly was the thing that worked,” he laughs.
“But clearly already in January camp, actually I was feeling super good and I thought that might be a bad sign because usually in January camp I suffer a lot…but apparently not.”
It’s not been a solo effort, however, by any means for the 32-year-old in his flying start to the season, crediting his wife Abigail Mickey, a former professional rider and now cycling journalist, for supporting his shape after becoming parents in 2022.
“I think I've been very fortunate with my daughter and my wife,” he said.
“My wife obviously takes most of the work, especially when I'm not there. But I've been lucky with my daughter because she sleeps super well. We pretty much had to wake her up to feed her in the night because she was not gaining enough weight, which is funny.
“But for sure, without the support of my wife, I would not be in the same shape. Just not be able to keep the training to the level I need to. But it's been super good and every time I'm home I try to take as much responsibility as I can because I enjoy it as well.”
