Idaho’s Matteo Jorgenson gave it all for a Tour de France he could never win – and triumphed anyway | Tour de France 2025
TAddej Pogačar’s victory seemed certain when he stole Butte Montmartre for the second of three times on the last stage of the Tour de France. His advance in the general class classification (GC) was held four minutes and 27 seconds on Jonas Vingegaard, more than 10 minutes away from everyone, and GC times had been frozen for the last stage. He had already won four stages; That he had not won at least six seemed more his choice than that of others. It was not necessary to be at the front here, to add a fifth cherry at the top of the ice cream, but the undeniable competitive spirit of Pogačar required an attempt. He marked his pedals on the paved hill, Scything Riders at the back of the group. As he crêché Montmartre, he had only four others for company.
Among them were the American Matteo Jorgenson and Wout Van Aert, both of the Visma Leal-Bike team from Visma de Vingegaard. Thanks to superb climbing performances and the establishment of the deepest team team, Vingegaard has managed to defeat Pogačar on France 2022 and 2023 – given the domination of Pogačar since, these tours now resemble memories distant from an obsolete world. At the time, Visma used the raw assault of Pogačar against him. Knowing that he would respond to each acceleration, Vingegaard and his teammates launched Jab after Jab and Pogačar were exhausted while trying to counter with Haymakers.
Pogačar – Already a cyclist of all time – replied by simply eradicating any trace of weakness. During the 2024 tour and the first 20 stages of the 2025 event, Pogačar looked invincible. He had not been abandoned once. Most teams have not even thought of trying to overthrow it, so their resistance would be useless. The peloton can look like a living thing, a vibrating giant insect with shimmering multicolored scales. Despite all its beauty, no part of it raised Pogačar. Vingegaard was the only rider that could be made. Given how much Poga beat him comfortably in 2024, he would need even more help from his team than before.
Jorgenson intended to provide exactly that. He is cooked in his postal title, domesticThe French word for servant. If the tour was a battlefield, the Jorgenson of Idaho would be on a suicide mission to hire Pogačar as long as possible before inevitably meeting its end. All the selfish objectives that he could have been unimportant.
During the first four days of the tour, Visma Riders tried to surprise Pogačar with unusually timed accelerations on the apartments, downhill, and in a fierce side wind. Jorgenson, to present a credible dummy target, tried to stay as close as possible to Pogačar in the general classification. In this way, Pogačar would be forced to follow the American attacks as well as those of Vingegaard, leaving it potentially surpassed.
Pogačar withdrawn with the assault of Visma casually while simultaneously fighting Mathieu van der Poel, a much heavier and more natural sprinter, in short dashes of the line. Van der Poel won his first duel on step 2; The depression of him appeared too far for Pogačar. The two stages later, Pogačar demanded revenge. Vingegaard was late in the sprints, but managed to stay eight seconds behind Pogacar through four stages, and Jorgenson 19. The Visma plan had not yet produced the desired result, but was not bad either.
Then, the time trial of the scene, Vingegaard and Jorgenson lost more than a minute each in Pogačar, making every effort from the previous four days. Hautacam Hulking in step 12 has been the most difficult climb to date; Pogačar chopped two more minutes of Vingegaard and 10 from Jorgenson. It was the end of any illusion that Jorgenson could be a general candidate for the classification.
With the vaporized plan, Visma tried to win individual steps. (Their Simon Yates had won scene 10, but it seemed almost incidental.) On the stage of the racing queen, Jorgenson stuck to the main group, then formed a breakaway with two other riders while the rest played in a hooded manner at the foot of the mercy pass. When Jorgenson fell halfway through the dizzying slope, he seemed to have been invited to wait for Vingegaard. Instead, the Vingegaard group caught it and passed it. Jorgenson was empty.
This was the domination of Pogačar according to which when he grimaced in pain while following an attack by Vingegaard against Mount Ventoux, I felt an authentic, but pathetic thrill. Pogačar had shown so little mortality on the previous steps that he had moved the benchmarks for entertainment. Instead of seeing him be abandoned, I would accept a distorted facial expression. This allowed a momentary dream of a stricter competition before Pogačar is clearly on another sprint.
The fate of Jorgenson seemed even stranger than that of Vingegaard, who had seen his formerly brilliant rivalry with Pogačar decimated by the evolution of the latter. Although he did not get a significant blow on his enemy, Vingegaard’s efforts have earned him praise. Jorgenson, meanwhile, has disappeared silently on the slopes every day. He emptied his reservations on stage after stage, apparently little effect for a desperate purpose. With two steps to do, Jorgenson admitted that he had fought with bronchitis the previous week. What was this tall and sick man doing, trying to climb as fast as the Wraiths around him?
In 2023, Sepp Kuss, the most reliable servant in Visma, made his way in the jersey of the Red Chef at the Vuelta a España. Although he was not the best rider of his team, he wanted to think that Visma would throw their weight behind him given his advance. They finally did it, helping to ensure the victory of Kuss, but not in front of the team leaders Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic launched intestine struggles which suggest that they would tear the jersey of Kuss de Kuss if the opportunity.
“I had to give up something from my own ambitions to help them,” said Kuss about his years as a servant. “Whether they need my help or not, I don’t know. Maybe they’ve never done it. ” He laughed, but under cheerfulness is a scary feeling: the idea that these generous and painful sacrifices made no difference. During this year’s tour, Jorgenson examined a darker crisis – Vingegaard needed all the help he could get, and Jorgenson could not give it.
Maybe he could help someone else. With the condemned GC offer GC, Visma aimed to guarantee a last victory at the stadium, probably with Wout Van Aert, whose abundant power suited short short climbs like Montmartre. On the apartments before the third trip at the top of Montmartre’s cobblestones, Jorgenson began to attack the group. Pogačar followed each time, but on a slight delay. It was as if his legs needed a few seconds to overcome their fatigue before stimulating themselves in a blurred movement. Although the tingling and spice of Visma throughout the tour did not lead to time profits, they had helped to exhaust Pogačar. Jorgenson remained fatally faithful to this tactic. But Pogačar has always had the energy to take the lead on the climb itself and to lower the survivors.
While the top of the hill was approaching, Van Aert suddenly Tonna in front of Pogačar, pushing his pedals so strong that I could imagine that the bike frame slamming under tension. While Van Aert supported his violent effort throughout the path, gradually, incredibly, Pogačar has been late. Jorgenson had finally withdrawn enough bites so that someone else could do blood, he had shown that Pogačar could bleed.
Van Aert joyfully crossed the finish line well in front of the others who, making the futility of chasing the rocket in front of them, had abandoned the pursuit. Pogačar crossed the line with a finger held in the air to celebrate its fourth victory of the Tour de France. Jorgenson followed behind quietly, his dying and altruistic work done and well done.
