Matteo Jorgenson is heading into Sunday's Tour of Flanders as the leader of Visma-Lease a Bike with the team's original plan completely changed after Wout van Aert's horrific crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen ruled him out of De Ronde.
The young US rider told Cyclingnews before the start of the mid-week Classic that "you can't control every single variable" but he wouldn't have predicted that four hours later he would be crossing the line victorious as Van Aert sat in hospital with a broken collarbone, ribs and sternum.
He even revealed at the team's press conference in Ghent that no plan B had been completely formalised after their big star was forced to pull out of his biggest goals, but Jorgenson will be one of the heavily changed Visma roster's headline riders on Sunday.
"If you saw the amount of man-hours that they put into making the original plan, I think you would understand that they still haven't finished the new plan with the riders that we have now," Jorgenson said.
The Dutch team have gone from co-favourites with arguably the best team, to underdogs against Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who is expected to take a historic third Tour of Flanders win and equal the record of Boonen, Cancellara and Museeuw.
"I still don't even know the final plan but I think we basically will have to play off of Alpecin because I think they have full pressure on them to take the race into their hands and we'll just have to look for our moment," he said.
"I think there's one clear favourite and that's Mathieu van der Poel."
But Jorgenson assured he and Visma shouldn't be underestimated for the race, especially after he won Dwars door Vlaanderen and came fifth at E3 Saxo Classic, with his form only rising.
"I think I'm still in what I consider the best in the world so you can never really count us out," Jorgenson said, knowing very well that many things can go wrong during six hours and 270km of racing.
"I think as a rider Van der Poel is definitely a notch above just in theoretical terms, but it is a bike race and like we've seen in the past races, a lot of things can happen so I think we still have a good chance and I have a lot of confidence."
Jorgenson did admit that he still isn't even sure just how far he can go after reaching new heights in 2024 with the Paris-Nice overall victory earlier this month and emphatically winning Dwars door Vlaanderen just two days ago.
"I have to remain realistic and I'll have to do my best on Sunday. I don't think anything magical is going to happen but I think my legs this year are something completely new and I'm still finding my limits I think," Jorgenson said.
"Actually, I haven't really found where I blew up yet so my feeling after Wednesday is a new level of confidence in these races."
Jorgenson played his tactics perfectly after Van Aert crashed out of the Classics and responded to post-pace criticism that he wasn't "going to throw in the towel". He instead combined with Tiesj Benoot to work over their fellow escapees and take a brilliant, but bittersweet, victory.
Benoot also spoke at the press conference at KAA Gent's stadium, with high praise for his North American teammate.
"To be honest I think Flanders suits him even more than Dwars door Vlaanderen. It's an even longer race, a harder one," Benoot said.
"I would prefer a hard race personally speaking," Jorgenson agreed. "I usually do better when the races are harder efforts from start to finish but we'll see what it's like."
Benoot went on to explain how the extra two hours of racing and more elevation metres only played into the hands of Jorgenson as it had for other climbers in the past like last year's Flanders winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
Pogačar's absence also changed things for Jorgenson who even before Wednesday had only one key competitor on his mind for the Tour of Flanders.
"It changes a lot [without Pogačar], he's obviously the one guy where you can count on him being there in the final," Jorgenson said to Cyclingnews. "We now just have to really focus on Mathieu van der Poel."
Jorgenson stated that he believes Benoot has to be with him if they are to have the best chance of defeating Van der Poel and Lidl-Trek, with the Belgian offering him invaluable route information as they perfectly played the final of Dwars door Vlaanderen.
But the 24-year-old from Boise, Idaho has become somewhat of a local expert ahead of just his second appearance at De Ronde.
"I think already I wasn't a bad rider and ninth at Flanders [in 2023] I'm also very proud of that result," Jorgenson said. "But I've definitely come a long way in a lot of different regards since then.
"One of them is just my knowledge of the area around here and I really learned through the team here in November doing recons for Flanders and Roubaix. I feel like I know how to find my way around and how the races play out."
Jorgenson will co-lead Visma-Lease a Bike alongside Benoot and Dylan van Baarle, with Tim and Mick van Dijke, Edoardo Affini and Per Strand Hagenes also taking the start in Antwerp. He would become the first-ever American man to win the Tour of Flanders if he arrived at the line first in Oudenaarde.
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