Matteo Jorgenson exclusive on 2024 achievements and Grand Tour ambitions: ‘I just don’t know what type of rider I am...’
This season, the American rider has proven to be competitive in both stage races and one-day classics. But how much further can he push his limits? Read our exclusive interview to find out.
Cycling Road
Can a rider who is 1.90m tall and weighs almost 70kg climb with the best at the Tour de France?
Matteo Jorgenson proved it’s possible: this year, the 25-year-old road cyclist from Walnut Creek, California, finished eighth in the general classification (GC) after helping his Team Visma | Lease a Bike teammate Jonas Vingegaard secure second place overall behind winner Tadej Pogačar.
It's the first time since Tejay van Garderen in 2014 that an American finished in the top 10 at the Grande Boucle.
"This year I saw that my body is capable of doing three weeks at a high level. And that was something that I just wasn't confident about in the past," the Boise, Idaho high school graduate shared with Olympics.com.
And the Tour wasn’t the only highlight of Jorgenson’s season. The American rider has been competitive since spring, winning a classic spring race (Dwars door Vlaanderen) and performing well in stage events such as Paris-Nice (first place) and the Critérium du Dauphiné (second in the general classification).
"My body type is pretty in the middle of a lot of different things – he explained - I am tall, but I'm pretty thin and don't have a lot of muscle mass, and that also makes me lighter. In general, I'm kind of in the middle between multiple rider types. And so I'm just lucky to be able to perform in a lot of different types of races. But I still don’t know what type of rider I am..."
How much further can he continue to surprise himself?
"There were a few days this year where I really noticed how I made a lot of progress, but still how far I have to go. So it's always humbling," he shared.
“I think the Tour de France, I will almost assuredly never win unless something really crazy happens in the race. But I think achieving even the podium in one of the other two Grand Tour is possible.”
Jorgenson: Facing my own limits
It was actually his successful Tour ride this summer that forced Jorgenson to confront his own limits. During the final climb on Stage 15, finishing on the Plateau de Beille, the American recorded his best 15-minute power output of all time, just before Vingegaard and Pogačar attacked to battle for the stage win.
"I just did 15 minutes at my best power ever, and I was at this level, which I consider extremely high level for myself, but then they accelerated for another 25 minutes. After that, you start to see, okay, is it ever possible that I'll reach that level? And maybe not, which is fine," he reflected.
The last notable rider of Jorgenson's height to win a three-week stage race was GB's Bradley Wiggins at the 2012 Tour, on a course that also suited his time trialling skills. In past editions of the Grande Boucle, other tall riders like Miguel Indurain (188 cm) and Chris Froome (186 cm) managed to triumph multiple times.
"The watts per kilo we're doing now is so much higher than even five years ago," the American explained.
"I think it is getting harder and harder for big guys to win because the demand for energy keeps increasing. So the faster we go every day in a race, the more energy is required. And then the difference between someone like Jonas, who's, I don't know, 15 or more kilograms less than me and me, the difference, it goes like this the faster you go up a climb,” he said, showing with his hands the growing gap.
"Throughout a long mountain stage, I'm burning, I don't know, a thousand calories more than someone like Jonas would be. So those things, I think, are making it more challenging."
Matteo Jorgenson pictured after the final stage of the 2024 Tour de France in Nice
Finding new margins for improvement
Despite an impressive season, Jorgenson feels he still can’t compete with the best.
"I'm a long way off. A pretty long way off. I still have a lot of work to do to reach a really top level," he admitted.
"I would say there's five riders in the world, Jonas, Tadej, Remco (Evenepoel), (Mathieu) van der Poel, and I would say Wout (van Aert), those guys I think are pretty far ahead of me. You have moments in racing where you see what the real difference is, and I think there are a few days this year where I really saw it," he said mentioning how van der Poel rode away from him on the Koppenberg climb during the last Tour of Flanders.
"In cycling you can try to close that gap with just working harder or being more precise, you know, making sure you don't miss any detail. But I think talent still plays a part, your lung capacity, your ability to process carbohydrates or your size or whatever. All those things matter."
Still, he believes there are a few areas where he can improve: "You never know when your body will stop improving. Time trialling is always an area where the whole peloton is getting better and better. So I also have to improve just to maintain my current level. But then in other aspects, my explosivity could be a lot better. I’m still not explosive enough probably to match the accelerations of the top guys. And then if I could achieve a lighter weight next year, that would be also great.”
Matteo Jorgenson during the Team Visma | Lease a Bike training camp in Sierra Nevada earlier this year
A scientific approach to training and nutrition
Jorgenson has transformed himself into a stage race and classics contender since joining the Team Visma | Lease a Bike this season. He attributes his recent improvements to his new coach, Tim Hermskerk:
"My coach this year has been especially good in managing to get me trained for multiple different things. He is one of the best coaches in the world. He coaches Jonas Vingegaard, and he's just super good at tuning the training towards either one day racing or stage racing or Grand Tour."
"He can really fine tune things and that's all on a scientific level that I don't really understand that much. But he just does a great job with it. And I've never, I've never been so versatile basically in my capabilities.” - Matteo Jorgenson on his coach, to Olympics.com
In his new team, Matteo ("It's an Italian name. My mum liked the name Matthew, but it's too common in the US, she said.") has also learned to be more precise with his diet:
"The reason cycling has changed so much in the past 5 to 10 years is that there’s now much more focus on nutrition," he explained, mentioning beet and cherry juice as part of his recovery routine.
"You train all the time, for a lot of hours, and a lot of energy is spent. So you have to be really very specific and calculated in what you eat. We have an app that we use all year to track what we're eating and we have amazing nutritionists, probably the best in the world, and they just do a really good job of teaching you what is required to perform as a cyclist or like what your body is demanding of you on a day-to-day basis."
Matteo Jorgenson (centre) between Team USA teammates Brandon McNulty (left) and Magnus Sheffield (right)
Matteo Jorgenson: Proud of my journey
Jorgenson has come a long way before reaching the UCI WorldTour, road cycling’s elite ranks. He famously secured his first professional contract in Europe by sending personalised emails in different languages to several teams, until the Chambéry CF development squad—a feeder team for France’s AG2R-La Mondiale—gave him a chance in 2018.
Two years later, he moved to Spain’s Movistar Team:
"I've had a lot of experiences in my life at this point, and I'm grateful for all of them, especially for me having learned two languages (French, Spanish) through this sport and in just a little over four years is a huge accomplishment for my life," he said.
"It just takes a lot more commitment to make it as an American than as a European. To have made it to this level as an American in a European sport, it means that, at some point in your life, you went all in for cycling. All of us did. It meant moving completely away from all your friends and family and going like for something 100%."
Looking back at his journey the versatile rider admits to feeling really ‘proud’: "In general I just kind of had a dream when I was 18, 19 years old that I could move to Europe and somehow make it happen.
"I wasn't a good junior. I wasn't exceptionally talented as a kid and I wasn't like a winner growing up. But I somehow believed that if I committed myself fully and through hard work, that I could achieve that. And somehow I was able to.
"Just making it to the Tour de France for me was already a huge accomplishment and something that I never as a kid would have thought possible. And then now, having won a race like Paris-Nice and being top ten in the Tour, it's like, yeah, every single race I do almost it seems like my mental view of myself is changing and my confidence is growing. So it's yeah, it makes me really proud."
Matteo Jorgenson in action with Team USA during the men's road race at Paris 2024
Chasing a long-awaited world title with Team USA
Jorgenson, who finished 9th in his Olympic debut in Paris, leads an eight-man US team at the 2024 World Road Race Championships in Zurich, set on a challenging course featuring 4,400 meters of climbing:
"It suits me well. And I think between me, Kevin Vermaerke, Brandon (McNulty), and Magnus (Sheffield), I would say we have a very strong team for the race.
"I think I'll lead the team. but I think it's best if we use our numbers to our advantage instead of, you know, having seven guards just for me. I'm not like a clear favourite for the race, so it's best if we try to use our numbers a little bit."
No US male rider has won the road race world title since a young Lance Armstrong triumphed under the rain in Oslo, Norway in 1993, a win now tainted given the former star's subsequent admission of doping for large parts of his career.
Can Jorgenson and team break the streak this time?
"It'll be a much different race with eight riders than it would be with four or like three at the Olympics. So I think in general we have a super strong team and I think we have a good chance to have one of us making the podium."