Cycling Stories: Matteo Jorgenson through the eyes of a friend
Matteo Jorgenson aos olhos de um amigo – Versão Portuguesa
Matteo Jorgenson leads Paris-Nice. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider might not be the strongest rider in the ‘Race of the Sun’, but he is definitely the most consistent. After the team time trial that put him in the lead, he lost ground at the mountain top of stage 5. However, he recovered on the wall in stage 5 and dealt a deep blow to João Almeida’s aspirations in stage 6, taking advantage of the wind to gain time. Now, he is in pole position to repeat last year’s victory.
Few imagined one day seeing Jorgenson at this level. It was victory in Paris-Nice last year that made him re-evaluate his career goals, to target victory in a Grand Tour. It won’t be this year, as he turned down the Visma-Lease a Bike lead at the Giro d’Italia. Still, he hopes to become strong enough to trouble Tadej Pogacar and help Jonas Vingegaard win the Tour de France.
The duel with João Almeida in Paris-Nice spiked the curiosity of Portuguese fans. Who is this rider? Where did he come from? How did he become one of the best in the world? Portuguese Cycling Magazine tries to answer all the questions in this article, with the help of Keegan Swirbul, a rider for Efapel, who is a long-time friend of Matteo Jorgenson.
Matteo Jorgenson knows things
When asked to describe his relationship with Matteo Jorgenson, Keegan Swirbul begins with a smile: “Matteo and I, we were teammates in 2018. We had a lot of fun together. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t get to spend as much time with him as I would’ve liked, because he could definitely be a lifelong buddy of mine.”
On the Jelly Belly team, the two Americans did many races and countless training sessions together. Despite that, Swirbul never dreamed that his friend would reach his current level: “I knew he was good, but I didn’t see him as ‘oh my God, this guy is going to be a possible Grand Tour challenger someday.’” He remembers him being “a decent prospect”, but overshadowed by talents such as Brandon McNulty, who currently stands at 3:05 in the overall classification.
Even though Jorgenson wasn’t a huge prospect, he displayed some above-average qualities. “I do remember him in the first stage of a Colorado Classic, with a very technical European-style circuit – twisty, turny, narrow. At 18 years old, he had an ability to float through the peloton and position himself right at the front that was unbelievable!” By contrast, Swirbul lost time in that stage, when he was a team leader and Jorgenson was a domestique.
The ability to position himself well reveals, besides a refined technique, a great deal of intelligence. In fact, Matteo Jorgenson seems to have always known things that other riders need to learn. “He knows how to train and he knows how to find the best professionals to help him. It doesn’t matter if he has to spend money. He spent a lot of his own money doing stuff that helped his performance, and he knows exactly what he needs to do, the type of food brands he needs to buy, and all the equipment.”
In order to know so many things, one needs to be smart, and Swirbul confirms it: “Matteo is really smart. He is incredibly disciplined and has a freak engine. But it took years for that engine to be seen, because he had to jump through some hoops.”
So that’s a wrap on my best spring ever🌼
— Matteo Jorgenson (@MatteoJorg) May 2, 2023
Ppl keep asking how I made such a big step so I thought I would put it in a little thread ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/CP2z7b93Ma
The recipe for Europe
So, what hoops did Jorgenson have to jump through? Being smart, the Idaho native immediately avoided a major obstacle on his path, which is the “big mistake” that many American riders make: staying in the US and targeting the national races for too long. “I want to go there, get myself used to live in Europe as an under-23, so that when I make the jump to professional, I’m used to it and it’s not a shock”, his thought process summarized.
On the way to a good result in Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour, Jorgenson made his move. He spoke to sporting directors of French teams in search of an opportunity to race in Europe. It wasn’t easy nor did it happen immediately, but he ended up getting the chance he was looking for in the youth team of [Decathlon] AG2R La Mondiale.
“This was his only path to Europe”, Keegan Swirbul guarantees. It’s not that Jorgenson couldn’t have ended up at Axeon, but according to Swirbul, the Axel Merckx team would have had little contribution to his development. Because the structure is not concentrated in one location, riders don’t even need to leave their parents’ house to join in. Therefore, while it might be a great experience for the likes of João Almeida, Rúben Guerreiro and the Oliveira twins, that isn’t the case for their American counterparts, who remain cut off from the heart of cycling.
If entering Europe was challenging already, staying there pushed the young American to the limit. Swirbul, who communicated with Jorgenson during that period, describes a “closed” culture in French cycling. But Matteo knew “the recipe for making Europe his home.” The main ingredient was to learn French, to avoid “being miserable because no one was talking to him.” So he did, and “that allowed him to show his talents as a bike rider”. Months later, he was on the professional team of AG2R. A year later, he signed his first professional contract with Movistar Team.
Always in front
Ever since that technical Colorado circuit, Keegan Swirbul suspected that Matteo Jorgenson could perform well in the Classics. One of his first notable results was in Milano-Sanremo, still with Movistar. And last year, with Visma-Lease a Bike, he won Dwars door Vlaanderen before putting in an excellent performance at the Ronde van Vlaanderen.
“What he does, there’s not another rider besides Pogacar that does this”, Swirbul claims. “In every critical moment of a race, Matteo is top-5 in the peloton.” Indeed, fans have been noticing Jorgenson’s skills during Paris-Nice. Whereas the other contenders have already lost time by not obtaining the best position in the peloton, the American is always in front.
Jorgenson’s lead in the ‘Race of the Sun’, along with results such as 2nd in the Criterium du Dauphiné and 8th in the Tour de France, show that he is getting better and better in the mountains. But the explanation for this development is simpler: “If you have that engine, you are a GC ricer. That’s just how it works.” And reflecting upon what his former teammate is accomplishing, Keegan can only deem it “absolutely spectacular.”
Matteo Jorgenson is believed to be one of the most driven riders on the World Tour when it comes to training. But naturally his training has evolved since he first knocked on that door. “When he was on Movistar, he trained very differently than he does now. He did a lot of a tempo training, which is very fatiguing and can work for a certain amount of time, but you pay the bill later in the season.” That is the reason why Jorgenson’s results always declined from May onwards, with the exception of 2023, where he shone at the Tour de France.
Within Team Visma-Lease a Bike, riders are not allowed to disclose their training figures. Even so, having spoken to Jorgenson several times about his current method, Swirbul found that “it’s all about mitigating fatigue as long into the season as possible.” It is this type of training that allows Jorgenson to be strong in both the Classics and the Tour, helping leaders Wout Van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard pursue their goals.
Big in Japan
“Thinking back to the time we went to Japan together, I was still beating him on the climbs. Nowadays, he would absolutely blow my doors off on a climb”, Keegan Swirbul points out. Going back in time, more memories emerge in the head of the 29-year old. In that 2018, there was Utah where he was 7th, then Colorado where Jorgenson dominated that circuit, and to wrap up the season, they were due to race the Tour of Hokkaido in Japan.
“Matteo and I were both in really good form after Utah and Colorado, and were really hyped to race. We went out the day before the race to do our opener [already in Japan]. We raced up a climb, I sprinted him at the end and I beat him… That’s what I mean. Nobody knew he was going to be a Tour de France contender!” Swirbul laughs at how things have changed.
Despite a more rugged path, with many injuries and health problems, his legs are still there. Keegan also left the United States, and much like Matteo learned French, he speaks Spanish at a C1 level. He now rides for Efapel Cycling, where he has contributed to the team’s positive start to the Portuguese season. He feels acculturated to Europe and has no plans to return to the USA.
Surely those two boys on their trip to Hokkaido could not have imagined the twists and turns that would come in their lives. And they feared for their lives under the Hokkaido moon. “We wake up in the middle of the night and the building was shaking” A strong earthquake hit the Japanese island and 41 people tragically lost their lives…
The following morning, Keegan and Matteo woke up to “chaos on the streets”, and they were later informed that the race had been cancelled. Recovering from the big scare, they realised they were alive and well. And when you feel alive, you go on and live your life to the fullest. “Matteo and I went out and trained. Huge rides, racing up the climbs, and smashing ourselves for seven hours. That’s probably my favourite memory with him”, Swirbul concludes.
