The American Matteo Jorgenson (25) won his second Paris-Nice on Sunday under the colors of Visma-Lease A Bike. And yet, he wore the colors of the French team AG2R-La Mondiale at the start of his career. His former boss Vincent Lavenu told this episode on Eurosport.
This Sunday, Matteo Jorgenson won his second Paris-Nice in a row under the yellow and black colors of Visma-Lease A Bike. But he could very well have prevailed under the blue colors of Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale. The 25-year-old American runner was an intern within the French team in the 2019 season, for his first year outside the United States. Vincent Lavenu, former boss of the AG2R team, said on
Eurosport The beginnings of the American, but also how he was shot the promising runner by the Spaniards of Movistar.
“The director of the training center had this ability to know what was going on in world cycling and he had identified this runner. We had convinced him to come to us, he had settled in Chambéry for a year. Unfortunately, we could not keep it. We didn’t want to let him go. It is true that we took a little time, at the time, with the training center, we did not rush to pass the runners from pro. It was estimated that they had to make their weapons little by little. Matteo, who was surely in a hurry, had the opportunity to sign immediately in a World Tour team. We knew it a little late, we had planned to get it pro the next year, but we got it shot by Movistar. It’s a shame because we had done most of the work. »»
Lavenu wanted to bring him back in 2023
Matteo Jorgenson defended the colors of Movistar from 2020 to 2023. After starting to shine on one week’s races (8th in Paris-Nice 2021, 13th of the Dauphiné 2022 …), he also began to shine on the classics from 2023 (4th of the E3 Saxo Classic, 9th in the Tour des Flanders) and to attract coverage. And in particular the team of Vincent Lavenu, who was ready to bring him back.
“We had kept very good relationships. We had come into contact two years ago, because we were considering, why not (to bring it back) when we knew that he was leaving Movistar, continues the laven. We met him, and at that time, three teams were already on the spot, Quick-Step, Movistar and us.
But it was the year he worked well on the classics, and after the classics, 17 or 18 teams made proposals, and Visma won the lot. »A Visma-Lease A Bike team where it is contract until the end of 2026. But Décathlon-AG2R la Mondiale will perhaps retry its luck next year?
