Mauro Schmid: “It went exactly as planned”

February 6 ^th 2026 - 12:15 [GMT 0]

“I’m sharing a room with ‘Plappy’ this week, and after racing the Tour Down Under together, we talked through a scenario… and it played out exactly as planned. In the end, it was really perfect. I had a lot of doubts on the climb when we were with Adam Yates. I was hoping he would sit up and slow down, and I was wondering whether I’d be able to hold his wheel, but he never eased off. It was tough to stay with him, but I knew that if I could make it to the top with him, I’d have a good chance of winning. Cresting the climb gave me confidence, because there was only a compact peloton behind us, with no counter-attackers.

I’m enjoying an incredible start to the season and I feel in great shape. I’ve worked very hard and I showed in Australia that I was on form, but being able to win is something else entirely. There will be other opportunities over the next few days, and I even think that with the climbers we have, we can try to go for the overall classification.”