So near but so far – but no regrets, either way. At the last possible moment, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease A Bike) came within a whisker of toppling Critérium du Dauphine leader Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe), attacking him on the final climb of the race, the Plateau des Glieres, and with every turn of the pedalstrokes, closing in on the Slovenian star overall.
In a heartstopping finale, Jorgenson claimed second on the stage behind Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), and the resulting time gap on Roglič meant Jorgenson’s courageous last-ditch attack all but proved enough to go from second to first as well.
Finally, the final morsel of time between the Slovenian and the American, though, proved impossible to eliminate. The American had to settle for remaining in the runner-up spot, albeit far closer than anybody had expected to the previously seemingly untouchable Roglič, a winner of the previous two Alpine stages.
It’s being a dream year for Jorgenson, claiming overall victory in Paris-Nice and a fine win in Dwars door Vlaanderen, then confirming his allround talents by coming within a whisker of taking what would have constituted a hugely surprising overall triumph at the Dauphiné.
Even after taking his best-ever TT result for a middle-distance race against the clock on Wednesday, the American had continued to play down his chances in the mountains.
Instead, he went well beyond his own expectations on the three Alpine stages to become the first American on the podium since Tejay van Garderen claimed second in 2019 behind Jakob Fuglsang. In the process, he has left everybody wondering, too, what he may now be able to achieve in the fast-approaching Tour de France.
“No, no regrets,” he told reporters after the final stage of the Dauphiné. “It was a very difficult race and I have to be satisfied with my performance this week. It was really a good day and I leave here super happy.”
While Roglič was dropped with five kilometres to go on the ultra-difficult Glieres, Jorgenson said he, too, had been “already on the limit as well” at that point, but that he had dug deep to give his best. As he put it “I just found something else.”
“Tiesj [Benoot, teammate] had been motivating me the whole morning, saying that it’s possible and I just tried to do my absolute best effort and there’s not much more to say. It was close.”
Jorgenson said that as early as the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin, the very first cat.1 climb of the day, it had been clear that it was going to be a very hard-fought stage with the break going and a lot of attacks from riders in the top ten overall.
“I was following some stuff and I got the feeling that Primož was a bit on the limit there. Also Tiesj got the same feeling and afterwards, he was motivating me. I have to say, too, I woke up this morning and I was feeling that the overall win was still possible.”
“I have been feeling better all week, too, every single stage and a big thank you to my coach Tim Heemskerk for that. He really knows what he’s doing.”
As for the crunch last five kilometres of the Glieres, [Laurens] “De Plus attacked and put everyone on the limit, it felt like, or me at least.”
“Then when Carlos [Rodríguez] went over the top of that, Primož didn’t follow and that gave me a sign he was struggling a bit because Carlos wasn’t so far down on GC. I was also struggling a lot but I followed. I wasn’t looking back but I heard on the radio he was distanced and from there I just had to make sure.”
With the benefit of hindsight, Jorgenson perhaps might have played things out a little differently. But he said that he was almost as worried about sparking a strong reaction from Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) as he was interested in getting ahead of Roglič.
As he pointed out, Gee is very much an unknown quantity, so he opted to take things a little calmly at first in order not to be sure that Gee, third overall, could not suddenly overtake him and perhaps push him down on GC. It was only when Gee cracked a little that he opened up the throttle for good.
“I was just trying to stay within myself, then once he was dropped, I gave it everything to the line,” he concluded. “It didn’t work out today but maybe it will next year.”