American riders Kuss, Powless and Jorgenson have commanded respect in Europe since the Vuelta

European cyclists are starting to worry about the influx of quality American cyclists into Europe. While the Colombians and Australians have already established themselves in the top wordtour pro stables, the Americans and Canadians mostly ride big races in South, North and Central America.

But last year, there was a breakthrough when twenty-nine-year-old Sepp Kuss from Colorado, riding for the Dutch Jumbo-Visma stable, won one of the three big Grand Tour events – the Vuelta a Espanya (the “others” being the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia). And cycling bloggers are rightly asking what will happen in 2024. Which American will follow Sepp Kuss with big wins next season?

In 2023, Sepp Kuss gave the United States its first Grand Tour win in a decade and only its second since Greg LeMond won the Tour de France. In doing so, he inspired fans around the world. But Kuss has not risen from complete obscurity. There are a growing number of top U.S. talents on the World Tour, and two of them are poised for a big breakthrough: Neilson Powless of Canada’s EF Education-EasyPost stable and Matteo Jorgenson of Dutch team Visma-Lease a Bike.

Twenty-four-year-old Jorgenson, from California, has swapped the Spanish Movistar stable for the “killer bees” of Dutch team Visma-Lease and Bike. He won the 2023 Tour of Oman points race, was top 10 in the classics and second overall at the Tour de Romandie before switching roles. Instead of domestique Enrico Mas in the Movistar team at the Tour de France, where he helped a lot in the climbs, he is now his own man and will probably be the leader of the Visma squad for the Tour de France.

Having just had the Visma-Lease and Bike cell fund a high-altitude training camp – a camp with its own nutritionist – it’s clear that Jorgenson is gaining more and more support in the Dutch team and is expected to reach his “highest physical level”. Team Visma is confident that Matteo still has plenty of room to grow.

He raced at the Asian Tour of Guangxi in October to prepare for 2024 after taking a forced break when he tore a muscle in a crash at the Tour de France. The Visma cell used Jorgenson in the classics as an important role for Wout van Aert after an impressive ninth place at the Tour of Flanders after he was in the breakaway with 100km to go.

It is clear that Jorgensen will ride the Paris-Nice Classics for the overall classification after finishing eighth there in 2023 and 2022. This year he finished third and fourth in stage breakaways at the Tour de France and last year he finished fourth twice and fifth once. The traditionally well-informed Belgian, or more accurately Flemish, newspapers wrote about cycling that Jorgensen has entered Wout van der Aert’s life in a big way. The aforementioned Belgian will apparently skip the Tour de France to prepare for the Olympics.

This gives Jorgenson a clear chance to potentially become a leader in a Tour de France winning team and more opportunities to fight not only for his first stage win in the French Tour, but also for the overall victory in Nice, where this year’s Tour de France, instead of Paris, ends.

Also knocking on the door is Neilson Powless, who started 2023 by winning the Grand Prix of La Marseillaise and the Etoile de Bessèges overall, was third in the Tour des Alpes (the Tour of the Alps is traditionally the last event and preparation before the Tour de France), finished sixth in the Paris-Nice classic, and was also in the top 10 in the Milan-San Remo race. Since his victory at the San Sebastian Classic in 2021, Powless has been on an upward trajectory, nearly winning the yellow jersey of the Tour de France’s leading rider in 2022. He eventually finished 12th overall at the world’s biggest race and came very close to winning the well-attended Worlds in Glasgow.

Florida’s Neilson Powless (born, ironically, on a U.S. Army Air Force base) is likely to be the U.S.’s main hope at the Paris Olympics, but in the meantime he plans to win a lot of one-off “Classics” races and hopes to win some big monuments. So it shouldn’t be a big surprise if Powless wins Milan-San Remo.

What is the biggest disadvantage of the three American cyclists mentioned – Kuss, Jorgensen and Powless? They are not typical sprinters. But this year, they’ve planned the three most important events to suit them. The sprinters complain that none of them can win the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espanya in 2024. All the more chance now for the three American cyclists. All are excellent pacers and all are at home at high altitudes.

Still, with the emergence of the American cyclists, there is one big concern. For they have not been favoured in the Word Tour teams after the world was swept up in the doping affair of Lance Armstrong and his US Postel team. In the U.S., cycling is working on modern foundations. Even the pharmacological ones. Let’s hope it’s all fair play.

Source: Cycling News