"Should we then just throw in the towel?" - Matteo Jorgenson responds to criticism of his post-crash attack at Dwars Door Vlaanderen

Matteo Jorgenson continued his stunning start to life at Team Visma | Lease a Bike on Wednesday afternoon, taking a solo victory at Dwars Door Vlaanderen following a late attack.

The main talking point of the race though, was undoubtedly a massive mid-race crash that saw a number of favourites abandoning, including Jorgenson's team leader, Wout van Aert. "So about yesterday… I really want to wish everyone that went down the best in their individual recoveries, however long and arduous they may be," the American reflects via a post on his official X (Twitter) account. "It was a big relief to get news after the finish that no one was in critical condition. Having seen the crash first hand I imagined a far worse outcome."

Relatively soon after the crash however, Jorgenson was on the attack, something that not everyone was best pleased with. "To respond to some of the criticism I got for continuing to race afterwards. After a few seconds of shock having barely escaped myself, I tried as hard as I could to bring myself out of it," Jorgenson answers these critics. "As we got onto the foot of the Kanarieberg I felt some responsibility to honor what has gone into this. The sheer man-hours, planning, late nights and early mornings put in by our staff and of course all the teammates that had spent 150k dying in the wind to bring us there in the front… Why would I let all of that go to waste? We already lost our leader, our strongest rider and the heart of our classics team, should we then just throw in the towel?"

"I am proud of how Tiesj Benoot and I continued to fight and I hope we honored the display that Wout van Aert was planning to put on," Jorgenson concludes. "Anyway, see you all Sunday where all of Team Visma | Lease a Bike will try to do him proud."

With van Aert diagnosed with a broken collarbone and broken ribs, requiring surgery, it's likely Jorgenson will need to step up multiple more times in the coming weeks.