After the triumph at Straight through Flanderswhich ended up in the background after what happened to Wout Van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson he received a lot of criticism via social media for continuing the race after the fall and for celebrating at the finish line. Jorgenson and Van Aert are teammates at Visma-Lease a Bike.
Van Aert falls at Dwars and retires in tears. Various fractures, he misses Flanders and Roubaix and almost certainly also the Giro. Teammate Jorgenson wins in Waregem
by Cosimo Cito
Jorgenson’s social response
Early in the morning Jorgenson then had to respond point by point to the haters: “About yesterday… I really want to wish all the fallen riders the best, however long and tiring their recoveries from injuries may be. It was a great relief to receive the news after arrival that no one was in critical condition: having seen the accident first-hand, I imagined a much worse outcome. To respond to some of the criticism I received for continuing to race afterwards, I want to explain: after a few seconds of shock upon seeing the crash, I tried as hard as I could to focus on the race.”
“When we arrived at the foot of the Kanarieberg I felt a responsibility to honor those who had fallen and what had just happened. The hours of work, the planning, the nights and early mornings put in by our staff and, of course, all the teammates who had spent every energy in the wind to get us there front… Why would I let all this would it go to waste? We had already lost our leader, our strongest rider and the heart of our classics team: should we have thrown in the towel? I’m proud of how Tiesj Benoot and I continued to fight and I hope we managed to honor the show that Wout van Aert intended to put on. Anyway, we’ll see you on Sunday where all of us at Visma Lease a Bike will try to make him proud of us.”
In the absence of Van Aert, Jorgenson will be Visma’s striker on Sunday at Tour of Flanders.
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– 2024-03-29 12:58:27
