Jorgenson has no regrets and knows what needs to improve ahead of the Tour de France

Matteo Jorgenson started the final stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes sitting second overall. The American from Visma | Lease a Bike still had hopes of taking the overall victory, but those ambitions faded quickly when Isaac del Toro accelerated on the Plateau de Solaison. Jorgenson also lost his place on the podium, yet despite that, he looked back on his performance with satisfaction.

Jorgenson began the day 42 seconds behind yellow jersey Luke Tuckwell of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. Thanks to Visma | Lease a Bike’s victory in the team time trial, the American still had a shot at the biggest prize, but on the final climb he quickly lost contact with Del Toro, who powered clear to take both the stage win and the overall title. Jorgenson faltered in the final kilometers and finished tenth. “It wasn’t my best day,” he concluded.

On the Visma | Lease a Bike website, the 26-year-old leader explained what went wrong. “The pace was incredibly high throughout the entire stage, so I quickly realised it was going to be difficult. I kept believing in myself and gave everything I had on the final climb.” Jorgenson still had Ben Tulett with him for a long time, but after that he was on his own on the steepest sections.

That was when he decided to take responsibility and ride on the front, trying to limit the damage as much as possible, even when Juan Ayuso of Lidl-Trek attacked. “I fought for the win and tried to follow Del Toro for as long as possible. In the end, I blew myself up a little, but I have no regrets. I’m satisfied with my performance and it gives me motivation to improve myself on the longer climbs.”

After an acceleration from rival Tobias Halland Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, Jorgenson dropped back towards the yellow jersey group. He eventually lost 1:43 to stage winner Del Toro and came up 19 seconds short of defending his podium place against Ayuso. Fourth place in the final general classification was therefore the best possible outcome for the American.

Sports director Maarten Wynants still looked back on the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with satisfaction overall. Visma | Lease a Bike won two stages, first with the team time trial and then through Wout van Aert’s sprint victory, although the Belgian later had to abandon because of an elbow injury. Per Strand Hagenes and Jørgen Nordhagen also left the race due to illness.

Even so, the team made its mark and also won the team classification. “Our riders have shown a high level throughout the week,” Wynants said. “Hopefully, the riders who were forced to abandon can recover well. Ben, Per and Matteo, as well as Jørgen, showed in the mountains that they are in excellent shape. It’s unfortunate that we eventually lost Jørgen, but we will take the positives with us into the upcoming races.”

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]