Matteo Jorgenson reflects on post-Tour de France disillusionment and looks ahead to 2024

As the end of his best season to date draws near, Movistar’s Matteo Jorgenson must surely have more than half an eye on 2024 and his exciting transfer to Jumbo-Visma. It has been a hard-earned journey to joining what many consider to be the best team in the world, and the American is looking forward to the resources that the Dutch outfit will have at their disposal to further his development.

“I just wanted a team where I could get the most out of myself,” Jorgenson told Cyclingnews at the Gree-Tour of Guangxi. “That was my highest priority, to go somewhere I could reach my highest physical level.”

A lot was said about Jorgenson’s sacrifices earlier in the season - with the 24-year-old often paying for performance improvements and individual high-altitude camps out of his own pocket - but on the team that won all three of this year’s Grand Tours, such investments should become a thing of the past.

“I’m going to a team where I won’t have to do those things on my own and where I’ll have a structure around me, which I’m really looking to,” he said.

“It will be a lot less personal stress and I won’t have to take charge of these things, they’ll kind of already be there, built-in.”

His transfer to Jumbo-Visma was announced in August, just weeks after the Idaho native had come within mere metres of winning stage 9 of the Tour de France atop the fabled Puy de Dôme. Part of the day’s breakaway, Jorgenson made a valiant effort to plough on to the finish line alone but was denied by Israel-Premier Tech’s Mike Woods and even found himself off the podium following a brutal finale.

Read more:

• Jumbo-Visma sign talented American Matteo Jorgenson for 2024
• Jorgenson denied long-range victory as Woods wins atop Puy de Dôme

His battling performance, however, was indicative of his combative 2023 campaign that captured the interest of Jumbo-Visma and has left him more determined than ever ahead of next season.

‘The Tour de France left me disillusioned,’ says Jorgenson

Disappointed at having missed out on a storied victory, Jorgenson admits that the setback took a while to get over.

“I really wanted to win a stage of the Tour, so I left the race kind of disillusioned. I just didn’t want to think about bike racing for a while,” an honest Jorgenson revealed to Cyclingnews. “I went back to the States, which helped a lot mentally. I had to take a bunch of time off after the Tour, so physically I lost a lot of form.”

It was helpful for the 24-year-old that the next target in his racing programme was the Maryland Cycling Classic presented by UnitedHealthcare, which allowed him to spend an extended period back home in his home terrain of the Idaho mountains. Though middling performances followed and only one top-20 finish in the Italian Classics leaves Jorgenson with plenty of motivation to hit the ground running in 2024.

After all, his two career victories to date came at the Tour of Oman at the start of this year and a first WorldTour victory has remained elusive over the second half of the season.

“It’s been a challenge just to reach a normal level again, which is fine,” he noted. “I’ve still had a decent second half to the season, even if I wasn’t close to my best. I basically wanted to get to a level before the off-season so I could be a little less stressed in the winter.”

‘If they want me to do GC, I’ll do GC. If they want me to do the Classics, I’ll do Classics’

Jorgenson’s results in 2023 point to a rider who is well versed over a number of terrains, shining both on the cobbles and mountains alike - not too dissimilar, we note, from the style of Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert. Much has been talked about Van Aert’s targets - be it the Monuments, sprint stages or even Grand Tour mountain stages - but for Jorgenson, he is keen not to fall into the trap of extending himself too thin.

“I think the super talents can do it all and they can do it all super well but I still think specialising helps. If you train for one thing, then you’re going to be way better at that one thing,” he insisted.

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

Equally versed on the cobbles as the mountains of the Tour de France, Matteo Jorgenson has rightfully impressed in 2023

As Jorgenson notes, there are certainly pitfalls one can fall into when excelling in lots of different areas, and the American has shown his capabilities across an array of cycling’s arenas. On the GC front, the Tour of Oman not only brought his first professional victory on stage 3, but also his first stage race title as he beat out Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step) and Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën) to the overall win.

Throughout March and April, the American turned his hand with ease to both stage races and the one-day Classics alike. Two top 10s and eighth overall at Paris-Nice were followed by mightly impressive fourth and ninth-place finishes at the E3 Saxo Classic and the Tour of Flanders, respectively. Shortly after, Jorgenson even demonstrated his potential on the time trial bike by finishing second over an 18.75km course at the Tour de Romandie to help him come second only to UAE Team Emirates’ Adam Yates in the final standings.

Second place is one that Jorgenson has unfortunately become accustomed to throughout his career, with his rise through the ranks with Hot Tubes Development Team, Jelly Belly, AG2R La Mondiale and most recently, Movistar, often coinciding with the success of one or two other stronger riders in his cohort.

Read more: Matteo Jorgenson and the blessings of a lifetime of near-misses, GCN speaks to the American

Now entering what should become the peak years of his career, Jorgenson is happy to let Jumbo-Visma plot his roadmap to that first WorldTour victory and more. In the team that has brought Van Aert, Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss to the pinnacle of the sport - amongst many others - the American knows their judgement is more than sound.

“I’m happy to do whatever they think,” said Jorgenson, looking ahead to 2024 and the first campaign of his three-year deal with the Dutch side. “If they want me to do GC, I’ll do GC. If they want me to do Classics, I’ll do Classics. If they want me to do both, I’ll do both. I’ll be happy to do any combination of things. I’m just happy to have a clear plan. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

In GCN, he was keen to note that going for GC at the Grand Tours was almost certainly out of his reach - as too are sprint stages - but the rest of the cycling world is his oyster as he bids to earn his spurs with cycling’s current superteam.

The Gree-Tour of Guangxi will continue throughout this week and provide Jorgenson with a few final opportunities to take a maiden WorldTour victory in Movistar colours, but more specifics about Jorgenson’s 2024 ambitions will likely be revealed in December by the Jumbo-Visma hierarchy. It is with them that the 24-year-old will continue his path from nearly-man to America’s next big star.