'Finally!' – Matteo Jorgenson scores first pro victory at the Tour of Oman

"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 what his upper limits are in multiple different areas.

And while Oman is definitely a step in the right direction in week-long stage races, he'll be returning to the cobbled Classics for the first time since 2020 this year with the idea of seeing how far he can go there.

A 120km breakaway in his maiden participation in Paris-Roubaix two years ago suggests that there is a lot more margin for progression in that area.

"It's definitely another area for me to explore," Jorgensen told Cyclingnews. "I asked the team if I could do Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne, I did them in my neo-pro year, and I want to go and see how they are, do a few of them, but not all. I don't like to spend too much time in Belgium but I like racing there.

"I asked the team if I could do the opening weekend and Flanders. So I'll see how they suit me, and I'll be going there with no pressure, just have some fun racing hard races."

Having taken eighth overall in Paris-Nice back in 2021 and third on a couple of stages in past editions, Jorgensen has higher aspirations there.

"It has been a target for me for a few years, it's a race I really love and it suits me super-well as a rider," he said.

"There are limited mountain top finishes, one week long, a lot of mixed stages where a lot can happen with crosswinds and medium mountain stages. I think I can make it into the front group.

"It's a race I always wanted to target, as a kid even in the US I would watch Paris-Nice, it's one race I can remember seeing on the TV along with the Tour, of course. So it's a race that inspires me and I can't wait for it."

Paris-Nice's multiple demands on riders' talents are a good match for a rider as versatile as Jorgenson, then. As he puts it, "my body type is somewhere in the middle of quite a few different things, so in the end it's hard to pin myself down."

But as a general rule in 2023, too, the American says the plan is he'll be pushing himself in different directions to see which one works out the best.

"I think at my age every year you get a little better, every year in the off-season I make a step up. Every year you know a little better about how to prepare and how to be a professional, this year I focussed a lot on doing things by myself.

"Then I went to training camp by myself, to altitude and did good work this winter, I came here ready to race and take it from there. That's the way you have to do it in modern cycling, you have to put the rest of your life away if you want to perform."

"This year I need to make a step," he continued. "Because up to now I've shown just promise which isn't quite enough in cycling, I need to take the step from promise to winning. I really hope to do that this year, I've done everything I can in training, now it's just about executing and I hope I have the ability to do it."

And a few hours later, that ability was proven to be there in full.