Matteo Jorgenson shaken after seeing Oscar Onley “fly over the guardrail”: “I was a bit shocked”

Matteo Jorgenson had a solid day on Friday for Visma | Lease a Bike, finishing as the third rider among the main GC contenders, although at a fairly significant distance from the front group. After the finish, the American told Eurosport how the stage had unfolded — and why one moment in the finale left him badly shaken.

A huge group of no fewer than sixty riders went clear in the opening phase, including Per Strand Hagenes, Edoardo Affini and Bruno Armirail for Visma | Lease a Bike. Armirail had still been well placed in the general classification and has now moved up to second overall, giving the Dutch team a useful card in the GC battle.

“It was chaos from the start. I saw that group go and thought: this is going to be a hard day,” Jorgenson said immediately after the finish. “It was a good situation for us, because the other teams had to chase really hard and we could save ourselves relatively well. For us, it was good to have Bruno, Edo and Per in there.”

In the finale, Jorgenson then had to do his own job, together with Jørgen Nordhagen, but shortly before that he witnessed a moment that genuinely startled him. “That final descent was really tricky. I hope Oscar Onley is okay, because I saw him fly over the guardrail and I was a bit shocked by that.”

It turned into a disastrous day for Netcompany INEOS Grenadiers. Before Onley’s crash — of which no footage appears to be available — Joshua Tarling had already hit the deck. The Welsh powerhouse did not get back on his bike and left the race with his arm in the characteristic collarbone position. British champion Sam Watson had also crashed a few days earlier, adding to what has become a painful week for the team.

On the final climb to Crest-Voland, Paul Seixas went all-out. Jorgenson did not have an immediate answer when the Decathlon CMA CGM rider accelerated, but he did not panic either. “Decathlon went nuclear and I held on for as long as I could, knowing that I did not want to blow myself up,” Jorgenson explained.

In the end, the American lost only thirteen seconds to Seixas, who was tracked most closely by Isaac del Toro of UAE Emirates-XRG. For Jorgenson, it was a day of damage limitation, tactical restraint and one alarming moment on a descent that clearly stayed with him after the finish.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]