"The development that Matteo has gone through has been enormous" - Visma coach compares Jorgenson to Jonas Vingegaard and speaks of future Grand Tour winning possibilities

Matteo Jorgenson's move from Movistar Team to Team Visma | Lease a Bike must go down as one of the signings of the season for the 2024. The American has come on leaps and bounds this year and the hype within Team Visma | Lease a Bike for the American is only growing.

"The first difference is that he has now really prepared for the Tour de France with altitude training. In training, almost everything has changed if I compare it to his past. Some riders already do a lot of power work, a lot of tempo-duration, a lot in the grey zone just below their turning point," explains Team Visma | Lease a Bike coach Tim Heemskerk in conversation with Wielerrevue. "We don't do that. We make a plan to let riders at altitude increase their capacities, including their VO2Max, to increase their endurance."

"I coach a lot on easy cycling. If someone does cycle a lot on tempo-endurance, I will talk to them to say that it would be better to cycle even more easily. That is unnatural, yes," Heemskerk continues. "Only when that basis is in order, the blocks come in during training and also during a preparatory race like the Dauphine they do a lot of that kind of effort. There they ride a lot in the grey zone. When they come out of that and rest for a while, you know that the form is good."

Having won Paris-Nice, finished 2nd at the Criterium du Dauphine and rode a creditable Tour de France in support of Jonas Vingegaard, just how high is Matteo Jorgenson's ceiling in the peloton? "It's still a matter of discovery with him," says the Visma coach. "He won Paris-Nice, almost won the Dauphiné and has now finished in the top ten of the Tour. He is an all-rounder with a good time trial. Is he going to be someone for the podium in the Grand Tours? He has already taken a huge step in that direction."

"I've never talked about winning with Jonas and I'm not going to do that with Matteo either," Heemskerk concludes. "We're mainly going to do everything we can to get the riders to the start of their big goals in the best possible way. The development that Matteo has gone through has been enormous in any case."