'I was worried, that was close' – Jorgenson edges to one-second Tour of Oman win

For ten long minutes, Matteo Jorgenson sat quietly on the edge of the car boot of the Movistar team car waiting to hear official confirmation he had won the Tour of Oman outright.

But when the news came through, shouted - given the lack of internet coverage - by one race reporter to another until word reached the team car some 100 metres above the Jabal Al Akhdar finish line, Jorgenson's nerves instantly dissolved in a huge roar of delight.

It had been close – very close – as victory atop Jabal Al Alkhdhar for Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep) clearly powered the Belgian up the GC standings thanks to four bonus seconds. However, with Jorgenson coming in just behind the 23-year-old at the sunbaked finish line, the question was – had he taken the five seconds needed to win the red jersey?

After those agonising 10 minutes, with Jorgenson refusing to give interviews until the news had been confirmed for sure, it became clear: the Movistar leader had hung on overall, by a solitary second, with France's Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën) taking third.

It's fair to say that Jorgenson's two victories in Oman, where he is the first North American ever to clinch the overall title, represent a breakthrough, with a capital B, for the young US racer. In just three days he has gone from a fruitless, three-year quest for a first victory to taking not one, but two wins in one of the toughest early-season races out there.

"It was super-hard – I meant the day was relatively easy, it was just the heat that was the issue," Jorgenson said after his win was confirmed. "I woke up feeling confident this morning, but I was a little nervous. I'm a big guy and this kind of climb tests my limits."

Vansevenant had pushed him seriously hard, he recognised, and the Belgian took the fight all the way to the line.

"I was worried, that was close. Mauri surprised me a lot. I've raced with him a bunch, I don't know him so well, but he's in good form – we both were here in surprisingly good form," he said.

"He went once, I saw he was strong, and I knew that from the sprint the other day [on stage 3] when I got him, he was coming back in the last couple of metres. It was a super good win and congratulations to him!"

The bigger prize, though, was one for Jorgenson, also 23, whose initial goal of winning one race in 2023 was amply superseded by his overall win in Oman.

"For sure, this GC victory was the icing on the cake," Jorgenson said. "Once I won the other day, I knew I was one of the strongest guys here so this became a goal. My goal for this season was to win one race and it has been the last two years and now we've just won two. You have no idea how good it feels."

Quite apart from his own success, Jorgenson's win was a reason for celebration for multiple reasons, including the happy coincidence that February 15 is the birthday of Max Sciandri, the Movistar directeur sportif who guided him to victory in Oman.

But, as for the bigger picture, after Tejay Van Garderen's two-second places overall in 2014 and 2015, Jorgenson now has his name in the Tour of Oman history books as the first US racer to take the race outright.

"For sure, that's super special, I didn't even know that," Jorgenson said. "Tejay got second? Twice, that's awesome."

He then added with a wry grin, "I'll have to send him a message and rub it in his face."

For Jorgenson, the specific goals of the season following Oman were clear before winning, but there can be no doubt that having taken his first two professional victories, he'll be determined to raise the bar again as soon as he can.

"I'm in really good shape in February so we're just going to have to reassess the situation," he said.

"One of my biggest goals of the season is to perform at Paris-Nice. It's one of my favourite races of all time and it's one of the races I watched as a kid. I'm excited to bring this form there."

Beyond that, he'll be looking at another good ride in the Tour, but for now, Paris-Nice, where he took eighth overall in his second year as a pro back in 2021, is definitely on his hit list.

For the team, Movistar's start to the season, with wins at the Saudi Tour with new signing Ruben Guerreiro and now with Jorgenson in Oman, is markedly difficult to how the squad raced in 2022. An early win for Alejandro Valverde in Mallorca and El Gran Camiño augured well, but the team struggled notably afterwards to take more top victories until well into the summer.

"I think to be honest with you the whole points situation gave us a kick in the arse, it gave us the push we needed to kind of just change things and reassess how we were doing things," Jorgenson commented, as he recollected Movistar's season-long battle to garner enough UCI points to be sure of staying out of the WorldTour relegation zone.

"[We were asking ourselves] 'Are we doing this correctly, are we doing this correctly, where are we losing points?'

"It was a ton of stress last year, it sucked while it lasted," he recognised. "But now looking back we've come out of it a stronger team." And Jorgenson has unquestionably reaped the benefits, too.