'Last year was a reality check' - Matteo Jorgenson on Grand Tour ambitions

In an interview for Visma | Lease a Bike’s in-house YouTube channel, Jorgenson also revealed that he took several months weighing up a long-term contract extension before committing his future to the team.

Jorgenson showcased his Grand Tour potential by placing eighth overall on the 2024 Tour de France. He finished 19th last year before taking 10th at the Vuelta a España, where he helped Jonas Vingegaard to overall victory.

“If you asked me 12 months ago, I would have said I really want to win a Grand Tour, and I think last year has provided another reality check to make me think if that is really realistic,” said Jorgenson, who has also become a mainstay for Visma in the Classics.

“If I do want to win a Grand Tour in the future, then I do need to make strides in that direction. I just want to focus one way or another at this point. I have these four years where I can go down a path really far. With the team, I just have to decide what that is.”

Jorgenson joined Visma from Movistar ahead of the 2024 season, and he has won Paris-Nice in each of his first two years with the team. At 26, he looks to have ample margin for improvement and within Visma, there is a belief that Jorgenson can develop into a Grand Tour contender.

“Grand Tours are for me the biggest races in cycling,” Jorgenson said. “I really don’t know if it’s possible and that kind of weighs on my mind, but I’m told by the performance team and the people around me that it is possible and they believe in it, so that helps me believe. 

“I think in the future, I’d like to do [a Grand Tour as a leader]. I don’t know if it will be this year or when, but I would like to try to do one as a leader. It might never work out but it would be nice to try. It is a dream for sure.”

Jorgenson was speaking before Simon Yates announced his surprise retirement from cycling, but it’s unclear if the Briton’s departure will change his 2026 schedule, with Jonas Vingegaard expected to lead Visma at both the Giro d’Italia and Tour this season.

Ahead of last year’s Tour, Jorgenson signed a contract extension with Visma that will keep him at the team until 2029, but he admitted that he took some time before signing on the dotted line.

“I needed to feel sustainable in this job that I could do it at this level for four more years before I signed a piece of paper that was committing myself to doing that,” Jorgenson said. “It took me a long time to actually agree to my extension. I think it was proposed to me early in the year and it took me months to feel right about it. 

“It takes a lot of sacrifice to be a cyclist. I was very aware of that this year, of how much I’m giving up in other parts of my life, and I wanted to feel right with that. It felt like a huge moment when I signed the piece of paper. It makes me really happy to have gone through that process in my head, working through my life, and now I have a long-term commitment.”