🇧🇪 #RVV24 That shower afterwards was pretty good. 🥶🙂
Matteo Jorgenson explodes in disaster Tour of Flanders for Visma: "I had to follow Mathieu on the Kwaremont and I did my absolute best but I just ran out of talent"
CyclingMonday, 01 April 2024 at 15:30
Team Visma | Lease a Bike endured a disaster before the Tour of Flanders losing three of it's leaders, and during all of it's remaining leaders experienced some sort of mishap as well. Matteo Jorgenson reports on a disappointing day for the Dutch team in Belgium.
“Today he was the best rider. That was clear. We had a plan to use our numbers but it didn’t go to plan," Jorgenson said in an interview with GCN regarding Mathieu van der Poel. "We didn’t make it at the front in the right moment and that’s something to reflect on. In the end, we still had a really good fight and I’m proud of how we fought. We tried to use our team and just chapeau to Alpecin, they also rode a clear and really perfect race. This was impressive to watch."
Jorgenson looked to respond the moves where van der Poel was present earlier in the day, but it was the task of a returning Dylan van Baarle and Tiesj Benoot to try and anticipate moves from the World Champion. They were both in a front group at some point, but were reeled in. Alpecin-Deceuninck controlled the race until the Koppenberg and so it was a head-to-head battle from there on.
Jorgenson was actually the rider who rolled through the Flandrien berg the best aside of van der Poel. “I went all in to win the race. I’m proud of how we rode," he says. He couldn't catch the eventual race winner and was caught by the chasing group, but then 'hit the wall' completely and was dropped group by group. "The race didn’t go according to our plan and we didn’t make it in front we made some mistakes and we didn’t make it in front at the time we wanted to we didn’t split the race. It was a bit chaotic."
At the end of the day Jorgenson crossed the line only in 31st place, right behind teammate Tim van Dijke. Tiesj Benoot was still in the chasing group and fight for the podium after the Paterberg, but was ultimately struck by a late puncture that took him out of contention.
“We weren’t really successful in getting ahead of Mathieu over the second time of the Kwaremont, which was a big goal and basically Alpecin was able to pull Dylan [van Baarle] and Tiesj [Benoot] back, which was unfortunate for us but impressive for them," the American admits. "Then I knew that I had to follow Mathieu on the Kwaremont and I did my absolute best but I just ran out of talent. The lights went out.”
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024