Matteo Jorgenson enjoyed a transformational first season at Visma-Lease a Bike in 2024, combining his talents and work ethic with one of the best super teams in the peloton.
It was always going to be a perfect match after he made the jump from Movistar. A match that he had been striving specifically for even as a teenager, knowing it would unlock his abundance of potential.
Some riders might be intimidated by the prospect of joining a team led by Jonas Vingegaard, a two-time Tour de France winner, or Wout van Aert, one of the best all-around bike riders on the planet. Not Jorgenson, who at 24 got just what he desired.
"It wasn't intimidating, no, it was just what I wanted. It was almost an accomplishment, just joining the team I had in my mind for a long time that I wanted to join - the best team I possibly could," Jorgenson told Cyclingnews and a small group of media during the Canadian WorldTour races in a relaxed and revealing sit down interview.
"Just because I know how the sport works, and I know that you need resources and support to get to your best level, and so I was even willing to join a team where I wouldn't have as many opportunities if I could try to take advantage of the resources and the team at my disposal.
"So no, I don't think it was intimidating. It was just mostly satisfaction that I was able to do it."
Knowing that he want the maximum from himself and his team aided Jorgenson's ability to fit right into the Dutch squad, according to experienced sports director Frans Maassen.
"He really does know what he wants and he's very clear about things, it helps a lot to integrate into the team," Maassen explained to Cyclingnews.
Jorgenson piqued fans' interest when he revealed in a Twitter thread that he had "spent every penny of my salary so far this year on my own performance" while racing for Movistar, even going as far as to hire his own nutritionist and spending nearly all of January 2023 in an altitude hotel alone.
That, however, can only get you so far according to the American.
He found new heights, benefitting fully in the Visma environment, taking the overall win at Paris-Nice and netting solo victory at Dwaars door Vlaanderen during his jump from the 35th to 13th highest UCI-ranked rider. He also played a vital tam role in other races and especially at the Tour de France, where he also went close to a stage victory in Isola 2000, close to his home in Nice.
Jorgenson describes his first season on Visma as "everything that I could have dreamed of and "a big success", however, that big jump in performance wouldn't have been possible without the team.
"I think it's just difficult to do things on your own, especially in the sport, you can't do everything on your own. Certain things are in your control, you can do your own altitude camps, or hire your own people like I did last few years, and that can get you so far," Jorgenson explains.
"But then there are certain things that are out of your control, how many staff you have in the race, even the people you have access to - what trainers you're able to hire, what nutritionists you can get advice from.
"And I think at this team, they just have the best people possible. They do a great job of hiring, and they have really good staff, and I think it's just been a pure pleasure being in what I consider the best team."
Visma is also a team filled with internal competition for every race.
With a wealth of options, Jorgenson arrived with a palmares that showed flashes of a very strong rider but he knew he would have to front up instantly if he was to earn the leadership chances he knew he wanted.
"I think for me, [internal competition] is only a positive thing. If you want leadership, which I think some riders do, some riders don't, but I think if you do, and I did, then I needed to prove to the team that I was ready for that and capable of that," says Jorgenson as he thinks out his longer answers.
"It only helped me to have other guys fighting for the same opportunity. So really, it just keeps you motivated and keeps you sharp"
With exactly 50 race days completed in 2024, 48 of them in Visma-Lease a Bike's colours, Jorgenson has certainly convinced the performance staff that he is already a leader alongside those established already for the killer bees - Vingegaard, Van Aert, Sepp Kuss.
Maassen replies "Yes" bluntly to the somewhat obvious question of whether Jorgenson exceeded expectations.
"We expected, of course, a lot from him, but winning Paris-Nice was a big surprise. And he won a Classic, did a really strong Tour de France and Olympics. He is also a great leader for the team."
Thriving in a new environment
Only a few weeks into full 2024 training and well before even pinning on a race number, Jorgenson was quickly exposed to how one of cycling's top teams operates.
Suddenly, the race for the maillot jaune at the Tour was a realistic goal for his team and an ambition they were all trying to repeat having won the past two Tour de France with Vingegaard and all three Grand Tours the year prior. He was already a key part of that plan, knowing he'd be on the eight-man Tour squad come June 29 in Florence.
Come July and the Tour was now "way different, a totally different thing" to his prior two experiences with Movistar.
"When you have one clear leader like Jonas, everyone believes in him and you're working the whole season up to that point," says Jorgenson.
"Whereas in the past, it was the biggest race the team did, but it wasn't like we were training the whole season with that in mind. It was more like we would start preparing in May.
"But really, this last year you start preparing, and you know you're in the Tour team already, I think I already knew in December, probably, so it's a difference in physical preparation and mental preparation."
Part of that elaborate prep took in another successful Classics season for the versatile American, where his uber-professional mindset was tested under the pressure of racing with the very best cobbled squad in the peloton - that is, before Van Aert's unfortunate crash at Dwaars.
"The Classics were different than in the past. For sure, you start them, with not just ambition to win, but it's the expectation really. With the team we had, every every other rider in the race looked to us, every other director looked to our team for the Classics," explains Jorgenson.
"So it was like you had that feeling of pressure, but I also knew I had the strongest riders around me, and we could essentially do what we decided for the race, which was - make a plan for how the race is going to go and just perfectly execute it with almost no problems."
It all came together for Jorgenson at Dwaars door Vlaanderen when he got into the lead group alongside teammate Tiesj Benoot and eventually won solo in a bittersweet setting after Van Aert went down hard and had his Classics hopes abruptly ended.
This plunged that season of constantly evolving preparation into limbo when a series of unfortunate crashes put Visma fully into uncertainty, with GC leader Vingegaard also seriously hurt in the Basque Country and only returning to training up at Tignes a few weeks before the Tour. His participation was confirmed just nine days ahead of the Grand Départ alongside the returning Van Aert.
Jorgenson didn't fret, knowing that after his stunning win at Paris-Nice and runner-up finish at the Critérium du Dauphiné, alongside compatriot Kuss struggling with COVID-19, he might have had to step up should the Dane not have recovered as quickly as he managed.
That didn't eventuate but what he produced on the run from Tuscany to Nice proved he was every bit a Grand Tour race and contender.
His eighth-place overall finish was lightyears away from his previous best of 20th on GC at the 2022 edition of the Tour. It was made all the more impressive having recovered from an early crash and rode for Vingegaard for the whole three weeks, acting in the role his compatriot Kuss had filled for both his Tour wins as key climbing lieutenant.
Grand Tour potential
Jorgenson, while so professional in his preparations, still leaves room for instinct in his racing. He's not one to underestimate himself and believes he is and can be one of the best riders in the world.
You don't need to look much further than the Tour of Flanders, GP Montréal or Giro dell'Emilia when he saw no reason to allow Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar to be better than him. Those days ended in defeat, often with a blow-up under the pressure, however, he showed all the intent of a winner.
He got it right at Paris-Nice and managed to beat Remco Evenepoel for the win in his adopted home race. He came within eight seconds of doing the same to Primož Roglič at the Dauphine three months later. He's already right up there with the best so has every right to believe in his own abilities.
With eighth in the Tour a confirmed benchmark, Jorgenson's self-belief has grown even larger, even pushing him to think of his GC ambitions, and, given his top-level climbing, time trial power and race craft, why shouldn't he?
"After the Tour de France, my maybe opinion on [going for GC] has changed a little bit. I saw, at least in the Tour, that I didn't have any days where I was like exceptionally bad. I had some bad days, there's no doubt. But I didn't have any day where I really had to just lose everything," Jorgenson says.
"I felt really good, especially in the third week, which for me has never been the case before. So I think I would like that challenge at some point in my career, to go for GC in a Grand Tour. I don't know whether that's next year or in three years, but I would like to try it one time."
Whether that be the Giro d'Italia, or Vuelta a España, which remains one of the few races he hasn't yet ridden, Jorgenson could see Grand Tour leadership with Visma in the coming years.
Maassen also believes he can go one further than merely going for it but end up in the top three.
"I think it's possible one year he can be on the podium of a Grand Tour, I would say. It's not impossible that he can reach that, but we have to see that in the next years. He's very good on many terrains so he can also win Classics, we'll just have to see," says the DS of Jorgenson's future prospects.
"But winning a Grand Tour, that will be a really huge challenge but I think he can do a really good placement in the next years somewhere. However, you also have to make choices and I don't know if he will always like to go to the Tour de France. With Jonas [Vingegaard], of course, it's difficult to be a leader with him if you go, but anything is possible."
There's still some way to go yet for Jorgenson but that performance gap to the very top guys is something that will only motivate him even more. Visma is the perfect place for his goals.
"I think at this point, it's just about continuing the path I'm on, basically. I think in this sport, things accumulate, and every year that you do, that's successful," explains Jorgenson when asked how he could beat such a stunning first year on his new team.
"If you don't go into big holes of fatigue, or you don't get injured, every year that you can stack on top of the loss is a positive, and you make a jump. At least up until now, I've made a jump every year.
"I think it's just going to be about trying to double down on my lifestyle, making sure I have a good year. In general, I'm even more ambitious next year than I was this year."
Jorgenson reaching new heights at Visma is the goal for 2025.
A Grand Tour podium might not be too far away. Either way, Visma have found a perfect match in the rider raise in Boise, Idaho and he has found his place in the sport at Visma-Lease a Bike.
