Jorgenson and Campenaerts from rivals to vlog buddies: “He completely broke down my defence”

Though Matteo Jorgenson has this season frequently starred in the comedic vlogs of his teammate at Visma | Lease a Bike, Victor Campenaerts, their relationship did not start out friendly. The two-time winner of Paris-Nice explains the evolution in a video on his team’s channel.

“I made a new friend this year in Victor,” says the US-based Jorgenson. “At first he was kind of an enemy of mine in the peloton. We didn’t get along very well in the past. I simply didn’t know him. And if you don’t know someone and there’s tension, you very easily turn them into an enemy.”

Having raced for the predecessor of Visma | Lease a Bike in the 2016 and 2017 seasons, Campenaerts returned to the Dutch outfit at the end of 2024. Jorgenson had just completed his first season with the team at that time. Outside the peloton the hostility melted away — and the two immediately clicked.

“Once I got to know him at the first team meeting a year ago, he completely broke down my defence,” says Jorgenson. “Now we are really good friends. We do the vlogs together. It was just like two guys travelling all year and living their dream together. It’s simply a very nice and unexpected friendship.”

During both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, Campenaerts and Jorgenson shared plenty of fun via the vlogs — a welcome distraction from the three weeks of suffering on the bike. “The best thing about the vlogs was that he told me nothing in advance, nothing was scripted."

"He would just come up to me on the bus and surprise me with the camera while I was doing something; it just worked perfectly,” Jorgenson recalls with pleasure. One of Jorgenson’s favourite vlogs revolves around Jan Ullrich. The former rider disclosed that during the off-season he microwaved a jar of Nutella and then drank it.

Jorgenson and Campenaerts subsequently challenged Ullrich to confirm the story. Ullrich responded playfully with a photo drinking a jar of Nutella under the caption “you don’t need a microwave in summer". “I’ll never forget that,” says Jorgenson. “I was bent over laughing because I thought Victor made it up. It just sounded so ridiculous. So then I asked Ullrich if it was true and the next day he responded by drinking a jar of Nutella,” Jorgenson laughs.

“Because of that I’ll never forget how far those vlogs can reach; it’s really laugh-able.”