“If Jonas Vingegaard is there, we’ll be 100% for GC. If he’s not, we will have to look at different scenarios" - Matteo Jorgenson honest about Visma Tour de France plans

With the 2024 Tour de France now just weeks away, we still have no idea how the Team Visma | Lease a Bike lineup will look. Will Jonas Vingegaard be present? And if he is, will the Dane be able to challenge for the Maillot Jaune?

One man who is likely to be at the start line of the Grand Depart in Florence later this month, is Matteo Jorgenson. “If Jonas is there, we’ll be 100 percent for the GC, and I’d be really happy to support that,” the American, who took the Maillot Jaune at Paris-Nice earlier this year, says in conversation with Velo. “If he’s not, we will have to look at the different scenarios, and see how it would shake out.”

If Vingegaard weren't to make it to the Tour de France, the man most likely to fill the two-time Tour de France winner's shoes would be Jorgenson's compatriot and 2023 Vuelta a Espana winner, Sepp Kuss. “My best chance of winning the Tour de France is if Jonas Vingegaard is there,” Kuss explains to Velo however. “I think Jonas is irreplaceable, especially in the Tour. I would hope that he is racing.”

Given the way Kuss won his Vuelta a Espana title, the American knows all too well the power of teamwork at a Grand Tour. “Jonas is so talented, if he is at the start line, he will be really strong. For a lot of things, you don’t have the pressure, you can take care of yourself, rather than people taking care of you. It just makes it more simple, for me at least," he explains. “You can play with the tactics and that partnership a bit more when Jonas is there, like I did in the Vuelta. I also wouldn’t have won the Vuelta if we didn’t do a tactical move to help Jonas and Primoz Roglic, of putting me in that breakaway, because that was the function of that breakaway. It opens things up a lot more for me with better riders on the team.”

The big question remains though... Will Vingegaard be fit enough to start the Tour de France? “We won’t make any decisions until after the final training camp in Tignes,” Team Visma | Lease a Bike sports director Frans Maassen tells Velo.

“We hope Jonas is ready to race, but we have to take it one step at a time. We cannot force anything,” Maassen concludes. “If he is not ready, then we can look to Sepp and others to lead. It will be a different tactic if Jonas does not start.”