After successful Paris-Nice and Dwars door Vlaanderen earlier this spring, Matteo Jorgenson continues to push his limits and exceed his personal expectations in 2024. This time, it was having the ability to stick with Primož Roglič’s assault from a lowered peloton to complete second on the Queen Stage on the Critérium du Dauphiné atop Samoëns 1600.
The American rider, who switched to Visma-Lease A Bike this 12 months, moved up one spot to second general, 1:02 behind Roglič with one stage to go. The 24-year-old additionally takes over the very best younger rider classification with a 56-second lead on his closest rival Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers).
As Roglič’s Bora-Hansgrohe staff shredded the bunch on the slopes of the ultimate Hors Categorie ascent of Samoëns 1600, a 10km climb with a median gradient of 9.3%, Jorgenson stayed stubbornly within the wheels. By the time the final remaining breakaway rider was caught inside two kilometres to go, Jorgenson was nonetheless within the elite lead group, right down to a dozen riders.
With the end line in sight, Roglič jumped and an alert Jorgenson stayed on his wheel. The duo crossed the road three seconds forward a three-rider group combating for third place.
“I am unable to deny that I shocked myself a bit. I anticipated this weekend to be very powerful for me” Jorgenson stated afterwards.
“I’ve no expertise with these large mountain rides, day after day. It’s all new to me. I’m testing my limits and hopefully, I’ll proceed to take action.”
“I nonetheless had rather a lot left for the final piece, which shocked me. I did not take into consideration the stage win till a kilometre earlier than the end. However, from that time on I assumed: it’s nonetheless attainable.”
On paper, the mountainous Dauphiné course didn’t appear fitted to Jorgenson. But he has claimed three high 5 finishes thus far, together with a fourth-place time trial outcome on stage 3 which propelled him to 3rd general previous to Saturday’s stage.
Stage 7, the second of three mountain trilogy on the Dauphiné, packed an enormous punch with an altitude achieve of 4,268m over a distance of 145.5 kilometres. It included the climbs of Col des Saisies, Col des Aravis (6.9 km at 6.9%) and Col de la Colombière, d’Arâches earlier than the daunting finale, the premiere of the ascent of Samoëns 1600.
“On such powerful rides, I’m at all times involved with losing as little power as attainable,” he defined. “I rode very conservatively all day, as a result of I haven’t got a lot expertise with such rides of greater than 4000 meters in altitude. But it went nicely. I believe I handed the check, at the very least for now.”
As a barely heavier rider, Jorgenson centered on the fundamentals to deal with the ultimate climb.
“It’s nearly maintaining cadence, ensuring biomechanics are good after which I’m staying calm on the bike and consuming sufficient and simply specializing in all the easy stuff, but it surely all provides up. If you overlook one factor, then you possibly can pay for it on the final climb,” Jorgenson defined to reporters together with CyclingProNet after the road.
In just a few weeks, we’ll know if Jorgenson will likely be co-leader for the Visma staff for Tour de France. The staff continues to be hopeful that Jonas Vingegaard will begin and battle for the win after his horrific crash at Itzulia Basque Country. In the meantime, Jorgenson is specializing in the ultimate stage on the Dauphiné, for a 3rd day of back-to-back mountain phases with 3,640 metres of climbing over 152.5 kilometres.
“I’m simply taking a day-to-day for now, I believe from what I hear Jonas is doing nicely and I’m nonetheless very assured that he will arrive prepared and I actually hope that he does. I’d actually like to trip for him and, and never have any strain on myself.”
“But I’ll simply take it day-to-day and for now, I have to deal with yet one more day right here on the Dauphiné and get by it after which we are able to take into consideration the Tour after that.”