Only a victory lacked in Matteo Jorgenson’s excellent 2021 season, the American poised to be one of the best names in the whole Movistar Team in 2022 – if he wasn’t already last year. The season couldn’t start better for him: following great Monument debuts (Liège, San Remo) and a reserve call-up to La Vuelta in 2020, he was able to finish 8th overall in no less than Paris-Nice, against some of the world’s best stageracers. An illness would then prevent him from doing well in his first Giro appearance -he still made it to the end-, yet the American got to bounce back and finish the year in style: 3rd after a long breakaway in Pologne, 2nd into another escape in the Tour of Britain, fully into contention at the Deutschland Tour until the very end and brilliant in his first pro Paris-Roubaix, spending half the race in the lead… despite a plethora of setbacks.
Only a victory lacked in Matteo Jorgenson’s excellent 2021 season, the American poised to be one of the best names in the whole Movistar Team in 2022 – if he wasn’t already last year. The season couldn’t start better for him: following great Monument debuts (Liège, San Remo) and a reserve call-up to La Vuelta in 2020, he was able to finish 8th overall in no less than Paris-Nice, against some of the world’s best stageracers. An illness would then prevent him from doing well in his first Giro appearance -he still made it to the end-, yet the American got to bounce back and finish the year in style: 3rd after a long breakaway in Pologne, 2nd into another escape in the Tour of Britain, fully into contention at the Deutschland Tour until the very end and brilliant in his first pro Paris-Roubaix, spending half the race in the lead… despite a plethora of setbacks.
Jorgenson perfectly depicts how often it becomes really hard for US riders to gain a place in the European peloton. After many efforts -and several journeys to the continent- with local outfits Byrds, Hot Tubes and Jelly Belly, and many e-mails every night to every single development squad in Europe, Matteo ended up at the AG2R Chambéry team, the development squad of the French WorldTour team, where he obtained great results: winner of the Points jersey at the Tour de l’Avenir, where he even stood in 2nd overall before the last weekend of racing, and 4th at the Ronde de l’Isard, the biggest Pyrenees race for U23 competitors. That’s how Matteo earned a place in the WorldTour with the Movistar Team.
Courtesy of Movistar
