"I’ll have a structure around me, which I’m really looking forward to" - Matteo Jorgenson explains decision to leave Movistar for Jumbo-Visma

Matteo Jorgenson will depart the Movistar Team at the end of this year after four seasons at the Spanish-based squad. The 24-year-old American has signed a three-year contract with Jumbo-Visma.

Speaking to Cycling News, Jorgenson explained his reasonings for the move and what he hopes to achieve over the coming years. “I think I just wanted a team where I could reach my highest level,” he says. “That’s what I’m most interested in at this point in my career, at least while I’m still young and when I think I have more margin for progression to go. I just wanted a team where I could get the most out of myself. That was my highest priority, to go somewhere I could reach my highest physical level.”

According to the rumour mill, Jumbo-Visma were just one of various teams interested in the American's signature so why choose them? “I’m going to a team where I won’t have to do those things on my own and where I’ll have a structure around me, which I’m really looking forward to,” Jorgenson explains. “It will be a lot less personal stress and I won’t have to take charge of these things, they’ll kind of already be there, built-in. I think the best teams and the best riders have been doing what I did in the Spring for years and years consecutively, and I think that’s where these things add up. Every year that you do it, you get better. I think there’s still a lot of progression to go.”

Given the recent conversation surrounding Jumbo-Visma being around a potential merger with Soudal - Quick-Step, Jorgenson admits this did raise concerns. “I had some doubts personally when I read the news, because with a thing like that you never know,” he recalls. “Literally anything could have happened, but eventually nothing came of it. I was slightly stressed in the first few days when I read it, but then eventually the team told me that nothing was happening, and that all was normal."