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“Finally!” Matteo Jorgenson half-shouted to himself, half to the world as he wheeled to a halt a few metres after the finish line of stage 3 of the Tour of Oman, with his three-year quest for a first victory at long last at an end.
Fourth on the previous stage’s uphill finish had looked very promising for Jorgenson, and on the harder ascent of Jabal Hatt, he managed to make it count when it mattered, soaring away from the group with 200 metres to go.
His narrow advantage at the summit, combined with time bonuses, has netted the 23-year-old from Idaho the lead. But in the short-term at least, it was taking that elusive victory that figured the most prominently of all.
“I was starting to think it would never come,” Jorgenson told a small group of reporters afterwards between effusive hugs and words of congratulations to his teammates.
“To be honest things happen in your head and you think maybe you’re not quite talented enough to do it. Today, I’m just super glad I won and winning there with a little difference is super nice. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Despite the baking temperatures on the Omani mountainside, Jorgensen kept his cool on a climb with multiple changes of gradient and even a small segment of downhill, biding his time until he made a testing move on the final, steepest ramp with less than a kilometre to go.
“I wanted to try them on the steep section because I knew there wouldn’t be a draft there and I could see how everyone was,” he said.
“And yeah, people responded, but not straight away, and nobody countered over the top, so I thought ‘ok, I think I’ll have a chance in the sprint.’ And I just had to wait.
“Thankfully [former double overall winner Alexey] Lutsenko had a teammate there to keep the speed up and I just went at 200 and didn’t look back. Well, maybe I looked back once but I could barely see I was so boxed!”
Movistar had given him full confidence, he had told a reporter earlier in the day, to lead in the race – the number one on his back from his team confirmed that – and as he said, “that was super-important.
“This team, honestly since the first year I joined, were trying to convince me I could win races and I didn’t even believe that myself, I didn’t even believe I deserve to be professional.
“It was a process kind of convincing myself and doing races and being up there enough to believe it. So finally today my dream came true.”
Speaking to Cyclingnews before the race start Jorgenson, 23, said that he is still in the process of seeing…
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