Matteo Jorgenson, Race Idaho, is tall – and grow in the biggest cycling races | Tour de France 2025

MAto Jorgenson is tall. Not in the way Dexter Lawrence or Chet Holmgren are tall. Not in the sense that most American athletes are considered to be large. But in the world of professional cycling, Matteo Jorgenson is great. In fact, the bicycle could be one of the only sports in which a man who measures 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and weighs around 70 kg (154 lb) big.

With large shoulders and a wide chest which can act like a sail in the wind, Jorgenson is the type of size that generally reigns the horsemen outside the discord for large visits such as the Tour de France or the Giro of Italia. For what? Because Grand Tours is won in the mountains and the big runners do not climb.

But Matteo Jorgenson can climb – because even if it is large, it is always remarkably light for its size. His body is a rare mixture of long limbs, powerful legs and low weight. It is a construction that allows it to hover with alpine and Pyrenian slopes with the speed and elegance of its screw -, according to a bicycle teammate, Jonas Vingegaard, the double winner of the tour, which at 5 feet 9 inches and about 57 kg (125 pounds) is one of the most beautiful climbers on earth.

And when you can climb, people always seem to ask the same question: when Matteo Jorgenson goes for GC?

It’s bicycle stenography for the general classification-in other words, when will Jorgenson try to win the Tour de France? This could also mean the Giro or the Vuelta A España, the other two major three -week visits.

GC means targeting the general classification: the yellow jersey in the tour, pink in the giro, red in the Vuelta.

Most runners who stand 6 feet 3 inches and weigh 70 kg are not asked this question, because most of the runners of this size have no chance of GC: they cannot climb. The biggest runners tend to aim for sprint stages or to specialize in classics, day races such as the tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix, where the weight and force help on the brutal paved roads in northern Europe.

But Jorgenson may well have his legs to win a big tour. He proved as much last year, finishing eighth in the general classification of the Tour de France.

For the moment, rolling next to one of the greatest runners in the GC of all time in Vingegaard, it is unlikely that Jorgenson will have the opportunity to direct Visma during the tour. Instead, he will go up to the service of Vingegaard as a servant – a rider who supports the team leader – while looking for victories on stage as much as possible.

So why not go for GC at Giro or Vuelta, and potentially become the second American to win the first and third to win the second?

Because, according to Jorgenson, it is not yet quite time.

Matteo Jorgenson may be known for his size. But patience could become its decisive line.

JOrgenson grew up during racing in her native wood, Idaho. At the age of six, his parents enrolled him and his brother, in a local cycling club called Byrds: The Boisse Young Rider Development Squad. The idea was not to create elite runners, but simply to make children outside and active.

But the race remained stuck. At eight, Jorgenson participated in mountain bicycle and cyclocross events – off -road races somewhere between mountain biking and cycling on the road. At nine, he was traveling to Oregon to run in his first national cyclocross championships. In a year, he also ran on the road.

At 14, Jorgenson knew that if he should become a professional, he would need to specialize. When an opportunity came to join Hot Tubes, the most successful American junior development team, it has completely committed to the road race.

At 16, after domestic success, Jorgenson traveled with the American national team to run in Belgium, the heart of cycling on the road.

“I was really dogshit in Europe,” said Jorgenson de Sierra Nevada, Spain, where he is at the training camp at altitude with Visma, preparing for the Tour de France.

Although he was humiliated in Belgium, he was not discouraged. He knew that his European peers ran tight packs on narrow roads for years, when he was still new in all of this.

With hindsight, this trip was essential.

“If I stayed in the United States, I would have thought I was a very good bicycle runner,” he said. “I could win nationals in the United States, then go to Belgium and be abandoned in the first 20 minutes.”

In the coming years, he has run at the national level with hot tubes and in Europe with the US team under 23, hoping to sign a WorldTour team, the highest level of world professional cycling.

At 19, Jorgenson joined the Van Rysel – AG2R La Mondiale development team, moving to Chambéry in the French Alps. He lived with 12 French runners and registered in full -time French language lessons.

After having placed fourth in a small French stage race, La Ronde de l’Isard, he signed with Movistar in Spain: the oldest team in the world. At just 20 years old, he ran Strade Bianche, Milan – San Remo, Liège – Bastogne – Liège and Le Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – the same roads where, a few years earlier, he had been abandoned early.

In 2021, he made his debut in the Grand Tour in the Giro. In 2022, he went up in his first Tour de France.

But it was in the 2023 tour that Jorgenson announced in the sports world as a whole. On the new stage, he launched a solo breakaway about 40 km from the finish. He struck the base of Puy de Dôme – a mythical mountain climb invisible in the tour since 1988 – with an advance of almost a minute.

The spectators were prohibited on the final climb, which is in a national park. The silence was strange. Then his radio cut himself off. Alone, without encouraging or strategy from the team’s car, Jorgenson continued.

But whoever knows the bicycle knew what was going to happen: it would be taken.

And it was, just 500 meters from the line. Then a second rider passed. Then a third. In the space of a few pedal strokes, Jorgenson went from the winner of the scene of the Tournée to completely miss the podium.

“I left this extremely disappointed and quite sick scene from sport,” he says. “It’s not a happy memory at all for me.”

However, fans like heroic attacks. Even in defeat, Jorgenson had made his name.

Shortly after, he announced a move from Movistar to Dutch power Visma-according to a bicycle (then Jumbo-Visma), which would win the three major visits that year, a clean historic scan.

Although he joined a stars stars, Jorgenson was attracted to Visma’s obsession for data, technology and marginal gains.

“I was not looking for the team with the most opportunities,” he said. “I was looking for the team that would give me the best structure to get the most out of myself. The most technological, the most motivated to progress. I was looking for what Visma had for years. ”

The results came quickly. In 2024, Jorgenson won Paris – Nice at eight stages, followed by the Dwars door for a day Vlaanderen. He ranked second in the Critérium du Dauphiné – often considered a warm -up of the tour – finished eighth in the tour itself, and ninth in the Olympic road race. This year, he defended his title Paris – Nice and placed himself in the top 10 of the E3 Saxo Classic.

What brings us back to this question: Matteo Jorgenson Chase GC?

Vingegaard always recovering from an injury, Visma entered 2024 without a clear leader for the Giro. The team offered Jorgenson the possibility of directing. Despite the top 10 of last year, he refused.

“I really wanted to do another tour by first supporting Jonas,” he says. The team also encouraged him to chase the victories on stage for himself. “But the top 10 of last year’s tour showed me that I am able to compete with a GC. Trying to win a big tour is one of my ambitions now. But it’s a project that can take me several years to get there.”