Michael Matthews hasn’t changed, but the circumstances around him have. In recent seasons, the Australian’s success was no longer in line with his extravagant gifts, even if his dexterity and consistency remained intact.
Since leaving Sunweb and returning to BikeExchange-Jayco at the beginning of 2021, Matthews was routinely in the picture for big prizes, but his running tally of victories in the season and a half leading up to this Tour de France was a paltry one. A win at the Volta a Catalunya in March was his lone triumph since he landed the Bretagne Classic in August 2020.
In Mende on Saturday, Matthews claimed the fourth Tour de France stage victory of his career and his first in five years after a stirring duel with fellow escapee Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First-EasyPost) on the final haul up the Côte de Croix Neuve. The Canberra native’s previous Tour successes came in sprints, but he cut his cloth a little differently in the build-up to this year’s race.
“Am I a different rider now? Maybe not,” Matthews said when he took a seat in the press conference truck afterwards. “I think I’m still the same rider, but sometimes you need to adapt to the role you’re given, especially at the Tour de France.
“We knew we were going to have Dylan Groenewegen as our flat sprinter, so I adjusted my training to be able to climb better and not focus too much on flat sprinting. I’m still the same rider, but I needed to adapt for this Tour to support the team and then take my opportunities when they came.”
Matthews insisted that the arrival of Groenewegen, winner of stage 3 in Sønderborg, was a relief rather than an imposition. A year ago, Matthews spread himself too thinly while carrying the burden of chasing Tour success for his team. This time around, his brief was more specific. He duly placed second on the two finishes best suited to him thus far, to Tadej Pogacar at Longwy on stage 6 and to Wout van Aert at Lausanne two days later.
“Last year, with me going for flat sprints, climbing stages, breaks, it was too much. It was a lot of pressure on my shoulders to get results,” Matthews said. “Now having Dylan, arguably the fastest guy in the world, took a lot of pressure off my shoulders. He could deal with the flat stages, and I could focus on the other stuff.”
The climb to Mende
Insanity, so the adage goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Matthews, beaten in sprints twice on this Tour, opted for a different tack on the…
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