For the first time in days following an earlier crash, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) was able to dig deep to finish seventh on the Tour de France stage 7 time trial, 54 seconds behind stage winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). He also moved into the top 10 overall, four minutes down, from race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
Jorgenson went down in a high-speed crash with his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Wout van Aert on stage 2 with just under 100km to ride on the hilly day in Italy. After getting back on his bike, the 25-year-old worked for team leader Jonas Vingegaard on the final climb of the day before finishing with the main group of favourites, 21 seconds down.
Jorgenson told WielerFlits that the crash impacted him more than expected.
“The last three days my body had a really not good reaction to the crash. I thought it was not a serious crash the first, especially on San Luca. I got up and I still had a lot of adrenaline, I think.”
But the reality hit on stage 4 with its 3,600 metres of elevation gain where Jorgenson was not able to assist Vingegaard on the slopes of the fearsome Col du Galibier. Another hard day the following day before the American was able to somewhat rest on the relatively flat stage 6.
“But then my body reacted a bit delayed and I had just a horrible feeling, especially on the Galibier day and the day after. So I'm just happy that I'm past that now," he admitted.
“I'm happy with it. Seventh is pretty a respectable ride for me. And yeah, top 10 in a Tour de France TT is not so bad.”
Is his first appearance at the Tour de France, Jorgenson was not only content with his result in the time trial, but more importantly the opportunity to assess his form after a full week of racing.
“It's a good test and just good to see how I can do if I go full-on on a Tour de France TT.”
The 25-year-old, who celebrated his birthday on July 2, is looking forward to the 32km of gravel over 14 sectors on Sunday’s stage 9 in Troyes.
“The gravel stage will be chaos,” he said. “I'm looking forward to the gravel and then a nice rest and the next phase of the race can start.”
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