Matteo Jorgenson had his sights set on a top-five finish, and he did just that with a top-10 finish in the Tour of Flanders. He emptied his tank after 274km through the unfamiliar and demanding terrain of the Flanders Ardennes.

"I swear, if the Paterberg had been 10 meters long, I wouldn't have been there," Jorgenson said at the finish in Oudendalde. [To be honest, I literally had nothing left. Every time I passed the threshold, I could feel my legs filling up with lactic acid. So I'm happy with ninth place." [Jorgenson, who won the Tour of Oman in February and finished eighth overall in Paris-Nice in March, made an impressive debut in the cobbled classic last Friday, finishing fourth in the E3 Saxo Classic. The Idaho native ran an aggressive and aggressive race, mixing it up with some of the world's top one-day races.

Like E3, he was not prepared for the early chaos of this Monument Classic.

"From the start to the finish, it was really tough. There was literally five minutes of chill time, and then it was just chaos...I got caught in a huge traffic jam (caused by Filip Maciejuk after 120km) and had to switch bikes and bring Bluff back to the group. From then on it was a series of agony."

Jorgenson rejoined the pack, but missed the boat with just over 100 km to go due to an important move involving several second-place contenders on Mollenberg. A few kilometers later, he surged up on Berendries.

"In Molenberg I came in too far back and made a selection error. [We knew we had to be in that group because all the teams were there except us. I ran with the gas pedal on full throttle. But I lost everything because of that. I probably had two minutes completely at full power. From then on, I felt this effort on every cobblestone climb."

A dangerous group that included Jorgenson's compatriot Nielson Powles (EF Education Easypost) pulled away from the pack by three minutes, but the gap quickly closed when eventual winner Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) went on a rampage in the last 50km.

The Slovenian took solo victories in Aude Kwaremont and Paterberg, followed closely by Mathieu Van Der Pol (Alpecin Deceuninck) alone.

"In the sprint, I couldn't do anything. I had to go to the front. But it was a headwind and I didn't have the legs, so in the end I was happy with ninth.

"Nielson was super strong. In the final, he toyed with us and I made him pull through. I took him off the back a little bit so he couldn't skip the pull.

Sunday's results and performance confirmed Jorgenson's cobbled classic potential and added another dimension to a Movistar team that has traditionally taken the cobbled classics lightly, not to mention his own.

The 23-year-old from the American Hot Tubes Development team has shown his all-around ability early in his career, and after a week of eye-catching results in the stage races that led to his breakthrough as a GC rider in Oman, Jorgenson, Sunday Jorgenson further enhanced his potential with a series of all-around performances in the Omani stage races.

"I love these races," Jorgenson said. I love this kind of racing. It takes a lot of personality to fight through a race like this. I want to come back."