America’s leading cyclist Matteo Jorgenson has paused plans to target GC success in a Grand Tour for a tilt at a first ever Monument victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Twenty-six-year-old Jorgenson signed a lengthy contract extension with Visma-Lease a Bike last summer, with the plan for the Idaho-raised rider to become one of the Dutch team’s Grand Tour leaders.
But that ambition is on hold for the moment. Though Jorgenson will once again be a key domestique for Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France, his personal ambitions in 2026 will centre around one-day races.
The biggest being Liège, the final Ardennes Classics at the end of April. That means the 2024 winner of Dwars door Vlaanderen will miss the cobbled Classics, as well as Paris-Nice, the stage race he has won in each of the last two years.
“Last year I watched the Ardennes and I really wanted to be there,” Jorgenson told a small gathering of press at Visma’s media day in eastern Spain. “I asked at that point in the spring last year if I could do the spring differently next year.
“I really want to be good at the Ardennes, and to do that I think I want to go to altitude before then, so that forces me to skip the cobbled Classics.
“Liège is a race I’ve done a few times and watching it in the past couple of years I always wanted to be there as those longer climbs are good for me, and I feel might be a little bit better than the Flemish ones.
“I raced it a few times with my previous team [Movistar] and really liked it. It’s not to say I don’t like the Flanders Classics, but at a certain point you have to make a choice of where you want to be in peak shape, what you’re targeting, and I wanted to try something different.”
Winning Liège is a mighty task. Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel have shared the last five titles between them, and both will be present once again. But Jorgenson is ready to rise to the challenge.
“I’m only 26 so I think there’s some progression still to be had and this year I hope to definitely take more steps,” Jorgenson continued. “It’s important for me to step up this year and be a leader, especially in some cases in the spring when with some of the new guys I will sometimes be the rider who’s been on the team longest.”
Beyond the Tour de France, a space appeared to open up for Jorgenson to lead Visma’s GC charge at the Vuelta a España. Currently, it is the team’s plan to go with Wout van Aert and Matthew Brennan as co-leaders, with stage hunting the priority.
Yet Jorgenson is set to dismiss that possibility, and will instead focus on the Montreal-held World Championships in September and then the season’s final Monument, Il Lombardia. “Hopefully we can cover the base with another Monument, because I’m assuming we will win one in the spring,” he smiled.
Jorgenson explained that the changes to his calendar came about from constructive conversations with team bosses: “It’s true that the management sat down last fall and they thought a little bit about what we can improve, and they definitely realised I think they want to listen to our desire a little bit more this year.
“You can see in the calendars that as riders we were given the choice to choose a little bit of our own calendar and they really listened.”
Grand Tour leadership, he insisted, remains a goal, but further down the line. “It’s something that I’ve set as an objective I’d like to go for at some point in my career, and it remains to be seen if it’s possible or not – you only know if you try and show up,” he said.
“I’d definitely love to have the opportunity to do that at some point. I’m sure in the next four years we will find a moment where I can put a lot of resources into going for one and really try to be a GC leader in a Grand Tour.”
