Matteo Jorgenson has been tipped as a future Tour de France contender and possible winner, but this year his main role will be to support teammate Jonas Vingegaard, says Visma-Lees Bike Management.

JORGENSON'S POTENTIAL STATUS AS A GC CANDIDATE HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF MUCH INTERNET SPECULATION IN RECENT WEEKS. This was highlighted by Vingegaard's victory on the comeback trail from the Ituria Basque Country Crash after taking 2nd place overall at the Criterium du Dauphine and dropping overall winner Primo Logric (Bora Hansgrohe) on the final summit finish.

However, in an interview to discuss both Thursday's announcement that vingegaard will race the tour and other questions, Visma-Lease said the bike's lead director sportif Merijn Zeeman lowered America's status as a Gc candidate.

Zeeman also highlighted Jorgenson's role as a support worker and said Jorgenson fully agreed. That said, he also added that, for the first time on the grand Tour, Jorgenson "will not intentionally lose time at the GC" and "tactically, we will use our numbers."

At the same time, Zeeman confirmed that Sepp Kuss, who has left Dauphiné ill and has had a quiet season so far, will race as an important team worker at the Tour de France. 

Zeeman also added that Kuss is not the only GC option for Visma in Spain in the fall, but did not specify who might ride there overall.

"I really believe Matteo Jorgenson will be a very good rider in the future, he will have a chance to win the Tour de France in his career as well, but he is still developing," Zeeman told a small group of reporters on Thursday. 

"He had a great season. But tactically, of course, we also use our numbers. It is very clear. But the reality is that Jonas is our rider who can win the Tour de France at the moment."

The strength of such media speculation was that earlier this week that Vingegaard could become a Jorgenson worker, Americans playfully dismissed the idea themselves, and Dryco Wtf.

As for Cruz, Zeman said that "Sepp can be Jonas's helper mainly on tour and he will be one of the GC leaders" - he jokingly said that the Vuelta will be the best in the world. -  "That race in Spain.

Regarding Jorgenson, who had a breakthrough earlier this year with an overall win at Paris-Nice and One-day Wordsdore Vlaanderen, Zeeman said, "Analyzing the World Tour season, Matteo is one of the best riders in the world.

"He's made amazing progress, he's a great rider in the team, he's incredible to work with, he's a real leader and he's really making our team stronger.

"This is also the first time for him, and it will be his role, because he will not deliberately lose time.

"Tactically, it can happen that he plays a role, and thereby, he is helping the team. And you never know what's going on in the Tour de France.

"But Matteo himself is very clear that he will go on tour to help Jonas. The intention is that he wants to help the team, and he helps the team by supporting Jonas as much as possible."

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