"I have a much higher chance of winning on the same team as Wout van Aert than I would racing against him" - Matteo Jorgenson sees Visma have multiple Classics options

With the Spring of 2025 quickly approaching, like always one of the teams to watch will be Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Although Wout van Aert takes a lot of the headlines, it could actually be Matteo Jorgenson that poses the biggest threat for the Dutch-based outfit.

Despite the immense internal competition the likes of Van Aert, Christophe Laporte, Tiesj Benoot and others pose to Jorgenson, the American is enjoying the challenge of proving himself amongst the very best. “On this team, I feel like I have a much higher chance of winning a one-day classic on the same team as Wout van Aert as I would racing against him on another team,” Jorgenson says in conversation with Velo. “When you’re on this team, you get put into situations and opportunities that you wouldn’t have on other teams.”

Both Van Aert and Jorgenson will be present on Opening Weekend for Team Visma | Lease a Bike and both will be amongst the leading contenders to kick off their Spring Classics campaigns with a win. “We don’t create a hierarchy of Wout first and Christophe Laporte second. We use all the cards,” Jorgenson previews. “One of the nice things about our tactics in the classics is that we have an open playbook. We use every rider as if they can win, we might have one or two riders who are there to help, but for everyone else, it’s open.”

This was proven in 2024 actually, as when Van Aert crashed out at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Jorgenson stepped up to take the victory. The effects of the Van Aert crash weren't fully felt until the races afterwards. “We were on a good track to close that gap, just losing Wout was a nail in the coffin. I feel like we didn’t have the numbers to compete in Flanders once we lost him, and then had bad luck in the race, with Tiesj and Dylan flatting before the key moments," Jorgenson recalls. "It felt like Flanders was cursed last year, but we made a lot of progress closing that gap. And I hope this year we can show what progress we made because we put a lot of work into studying it.”

“A lot of it is tactical, and we looked our opponents and seeing how they race. We studied Mathieu van der Poel a lot, we’re just trying to figure out what ways he was better than us, and what ways he raced better, and what we can learn from it," continues the American. “Some of it is video, we do that a lot. Watching historical versions of the race to see what went wrong, what we did right, and thankfully we have a whole staff doing that and they present their findings to us. Waiting is the name of the game in the classics, but if I were to sit on the wheel of Tadej Pogacar or Van der Poel and wait for the last climb up Kwaremont, I am not going to beat them.”

In terms of races in particular to target victory though, one stands out more than most for Jorgenson. “I like E3. It’s the one that suits me best,” he concludes. “I’ve been 4th and 5th, and I know the order of the climbs, it’s the one I have studied enough to know how it works.”