Boise cyclist Jorgenson earns podium in Le Tour de France

BELLEVILLE-EN-BEAUJOLAIS, France (CBS2) — After a heartbreaking 4th-place finish a few days ago, Boise cyclist Matteo Jorgenson stormed back to claim a spot on the podium of a Tour de France stage.

Jorgenson, who races for Movistar Team, has finished close to the podium on a few occasions in his first two Tour de France's. In 2022, Jorgenson came 4th twice, and Jorgenson came agonizingly close to a stage win on Stage 9 of this year's Tour, when he was passed by three riders in the last few hundred meters after leading for much of the race.

On Stage 12, a breakaway took some time to form, but with about 100km to go, Jorgenson and other riders took their chance to distance themselves from the peloton.

The group rode clear for quite awhile, but an attack from Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel and Costa Rican rider Andrey Amador separated the group.

Jorgenson launched several attacks to claw back the two race leaders, dropping some in the breakaway in the process. With about 32km to go, Jorgenson and French rider Thibaut Pinot collected the leader Van der Pol.

Soon afterwards however, Ion Izagirre caught the three, blitzing away for what would be a stage victory for the Spaniard.

Jorgenson tried multiple times to get a group to desperately pursue the leader, only managing to get Frenchmen Mathieu Burgaudeau to cooperate. The two couldn't close the gap, but they distanced themselves from the other riders in the chase.

Eventually, Burgaudeau and Jorgenson found themselves in a sprint at the end of the 105 mile hilly stage, with Burgaudeau just edging Jorgenson to claim 2nd.

The 3rd-place finish is Jorgenson's first podium in Le Tour, but not his first in his professional career. In fact, Jorgenson previously won the Tour of Oman earlier in the year, winning the overall classification by just a second.

Jorgenson's finish nets him a good chunk of time back on the overall race leaders, but his main focus will be to help teammate Ruben Almeida Guerreiro. Cycling is not an individual sport; Jorgenson's main objective this tour was to help team leader Enric Mas, but the objective quickly shifted to Guerreiro after Mas abandoned Le Tour on Stage 1 following a bad crash.

With twelve stages down and nine to go, Jorgenson and the other riders in Le Tour, must gear up for the mountainous terrain which often rules over the last few days of the race.

For more on Matteo's backstory, click here.