Matteo Jorgenson reveals why he has already given up on Tour de France GC

Jorgenson is 19:12 down after the first four stages of the Tour de France.

The American is not the kind of rider who usually disappears from the standings this early. He won Paris-Nice in 2024 and 2025, finished eighth at the 2024 Tour and has often looked like the obvious second GC option behind Jonas Vingegaard at Visma | Lease a Bike.

This time, though, Visma are using him differently.

The American has no interest in protecting his own place in the standings. Visma have made the call to use him differently, and Jorgenson says the decision comes from what the team has seen in the past two Tours.

“It has not really worked in the other years,” Jorgenson told Feltet when asked about the new approach ahead of stage 5.

This is Jorgenson’s third Tour de France with Visma. In 2024, he was one of the team’s most important riders in support of Vingegaard, but he also remained a serious presence in the overall classification himself. He finished eighth in Paris, while Vingegaard ended the race second behind Tadej Pogačar.

A year later, the same idea was still there. Jorgenson again went into the Tour as more than a pure domestique, a rider who could support Vingegaard but also stay in the GC picture if the race opened up. He eventually finished nineteenth after he struggled with bronchitis in the latter half of the race. Now the team has stripped away the grey area.

Jorgenson is no longer trying to survive every finale for himself. Instead, he is saving as much as possible for the days when Vingegaard needs numbers around him in the mountains.

“I am not going to win the Tour when Jonas and Pogacar are here, so it is much better for me to take it easy in the finales and be 100% focused on Jonas,” Jorgenson explained.

The decision comes after a spring in which Jorgenson did not get the chance to chase his own targets. He had built towards the Ardennes Classics, but crashed out of the Amstel Gold Race with a broken collarbone. That injury kept him out of both Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Still, there is little sign that he has arrived at the Tour looking to make up for lost opportunities. Jorgenson has put his own ambitions to one side and is clear about where Visma's priority lies.

“I think he has a really good chance of winning the Tour this year, and we are fully supporting him,” Jorgenson said.