'My main goal is to help Vingegaard' - Jorgenson downplays Tour de France GC role

There’s nothing quite like learning on the job. Matteo Jorgenson’s primary role at the 2025 Tour de France will be to ride in support of Jonas Vingegaard, but Visma | Lease a Bike will hope the race also serves to sharpen him towards a future as a GC contender in his own right.

Head of performance Mathieu Heijboer indicated that Jorgenson would be a crucial element in Visma’s strategy for the Tour when he spoke to Domestique last week. “We want to keep him in GC. He’s very dangerous there,” Heijboer said.

When he met the press in Lille on Friday morning, Jorgenson confirmed that approach in principle, though he stressed that his priority was to shepherd Vingegaard in the high mountains, as he did a year ago en route to eighth overall.

“My main role is to help Jonas,” Jorgenson said. “To do that, it could be useful to have me in the GC, but my main goal is to help Jonas win the Tour.”

Earlier this week, Visma announced that Jorgenson had agreed a contraction extension that would keep him at the team through the end of the 2029 season. Confirmation, as if it were needed, that Richard Plugge et al view Jorgenson as a long-term project.

Since signing from Movistar at the end of 2023, Jorgenson has underscored his stage racing credentials by winning successive editions of Paris-Nice and placing second overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné last year, just eight seconds down on Primoz Roglic.

Still only 26, Jorgenson appears to have ample margin for improvement over the duration of his contract.

“Every Grand Tour I do is a learning process, but this one is especially so,” Jorgenson said. “I think it’s helpful to learn from Jonas and do a Grand Tour with GC in mind but without the pressure of leading the team. But it’s all with the goal in mind of winning the Tour with Jonas. I’ll focus on my job, and then once my job is done, I’ll ride to the line.”

The versatile Jorgenson will also have a job to do in the opening half of the race. He has formed a key part of the cobbled Classics unit around Wout van Aert over the past two seasons, and Visma have brought some of that spirit into their Tour squad. Van Aert, Edoardo Affini and Tiesj Benoot, mainstays on the cobbles, are all in the team for the Tour, alongside climbers Sepp Kuss and Simon Yates.

“I think we have a Classics team with a few climbers along for the ride and for me that’s the key to this Tour de France – getting through this first ten days and treating them like Classics, and trying to take advantage there,” Jorgenson said. “For me, our strength lies in our ability to ride one-day races and make things happen at the front of the race. But we have plenty of climbers still, that won’t be an issue. With Sepp, Jonas, Simon and me, we can make a lot happen in the mountains.”

Like Vingegaard, Jorgenson warmed up for the Tour at the Dauphiné, though he had to settle for eighth place this time out. It was, however, a very different kind of race, with Tour favourite Tadej Pogacar dominant in the mountains. Despite his defeat at the Dauphiné, Vingegaard has declared himself in the best condition of his career as this Tour gets under way, and the thought was echoed by Jorgenson.

“I also feel like I'm in the best shape that I've had in my life,” Jorgenson said. “It's hard to know until we get into the race, but at the Dauphine I felt a level up from last year. It's hard to compare to last year, because the field was so different this year. There was a lot higher level on the start list. But physically, I feel better than last year.”