“He is travelling separately to and from the stages” – Matteo Jorgenson isolated from Visma teammates at 2026 Tour de France
CyclingFriday, 17 July 2026 at 12:36
Matteo Jorgenson is being kept away from his Team Visma | Lease a Bike teammates after falling ill at the 2026 Tour de France, although the American showed the first signs of improvement ahead of the race’s next mountain tests.
Jorgenson has endured two difficult days while attempting to remain in the race and recover sufficiently to resume his role alongside Jonas Vingegaard. Visma have responded by isolating him from the rest of the squad and arranging separate transport to minimise the risk of the illness spreading.
“The past two days have been difficult for him, but he felt a little better this morning,” sports director Marc Reef told TV 2 Sport. “We have isolated him from the rest of the group and he is travelling separately to and from the stages, so we are trying to do everything we can.”
Jorgenson travelled to the start of stage 11 in a team car rather than on the bus with his teammates and wore a face mask before signing on. He remained separated from the group ahead of stage 12 as Visma continued to monitor his recovery.
The precise nature of the illness has not been disclosed. “It is not ideal, but we have to adapt to the situation,” Reef added. “Then we will have to see how it develops over the course of the week.”
Visma take no chances around Vingegaard
Visma’s response comes after Vingegaard spent the opening half of the Tour wearing a Covid-style face mask before and after stages in an effort to avoid becoming ill for a third successive edition.
The Dane explained ahead of stage 2 that he had already heard of sickness circulating within the peloton and did not want to take unnecessary risks. “Well, I hear there already is some sickness in the bunch, and as I’ve been sick in my last two Tour de France, I want to be on the safe side and try to stay healthy,” Vingegaard told TNT Sports. “So it’s more a precaution from my side. I don’t have anything at all.”
“There are also a lot more people, a lot more spectators and a lot more journalists, so there are a lot more things that can go around,” he continued. “I just want to try to stay safer than in the last Grand Tours.”
Those precautions have taken on greater importance now that illness has reached one of Vingegaard’s principal support riders. Jorgenson entered the Tour as a crucial part of Visma’s mountain unit, but his immediate priority has become staying in the race while preventing further disruption within the team.
Jonas Vingegaard has been wearing a facemask throughout the 2026 Tour de France
Jorgenson searches for recovery before the mountains
The illness has compounded a difficult period for Jorgenson, who also crashed during stage 10 and finished with visible injuries to his left arm and knee.
He then struggled through stage 11, losing contact late in the day and finishing more than two minutes behind the stage winner. Rather than preserving his own position in the general classification, the American is now attempting to recover enough to offer meaningful support to Vingegaard as the Tour moves back into more demanding terrain.
Reef’s update offered Visma some encouragement, but Jorgenson’s continued isolation showed that the concern had not passed. With Vingegaard already facing a major task in the battle for yellow, losing one of his strongest mountain domestiques would further reduce Visma’s options during the decisive stages.
For now, Jorgenson remains in the Tour and reported feeling slightly better. Whether that improvement comes quickly enough for him to return to Vingegaard’s side in the mountains remains Visma’s more pressing concern.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- For all the fun made of Movistar, well, as you’re asking, that’s exactly what they do during sprint stages SO, in the end, maybe they DO actually have a point?Jumpyjohn18-07-2026
- Total BS If there was no Pogi, you’d not know he could exist so you’d never be in this state of devotion and you’d have picked someone else to sell to us, like Primoz at the time. Why don’t you go over to tennis forums while you still can?Jumpyjohn18-07-2026
- Ah, so you’re admitting you’re not a cycling fan, just stalking someone because you feel they have some relation to you because they come from a place not too far (but not close either) from where you consider yourself to have some attachment?Jumpyjohn18-07-2026
- This isn't the first time he takes up the role of water guy for his mates.
KerisVroom17-07-2026 - That's class. LA would never in a million years have done something like that for his team.Crashjames17-07-2026
- Maybe they chase after Jorgenson to measure his temperature :-)Jumpyjohn17-07-2026
- What Pidcock is mediocre . Lol world champ multi discipline and he worked for the move up GC . Ob you you should stick to football as you know nothing about cycling and Pidcock was not gifted .paultryan200217-07-2026
- I think they are more fixated on each other and in view of the much harder stage tomorrow they considered it safer to stick around each other. Kind of unusual to see all the leaders as a bunch up as big a climb and no-one trying anything. Tomorrow will show if Pidcock had a plan or was just lucky, he didn’t spend that much more energy than the others for all the gains he gathered, conditions, wind and conditions were very favourable along the way.Jumpyjohn17-07-2026
- Same like most of us continue training (with slightly less effort) when we are not completely bed-ridden. You get through it and within a few days or a week you are often back to your old self. He will be needed in the next chapter. Once you quit you can’t come back or be replaced. Given the choice, you try to see if things improve.Jumpyjohn17-07-2026
- So basically you are telling us your fit Pogi can’t (or refuses) to shake loose a suffering Jorgenson to stay risk-free? Maybe UAE started things by infecting Jorgenson? Doesn’t seem to be the only one.Jumpyjohn17-07-2026
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