Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) has been a nearly man more often than he’d like in his career, but at one race, and a WorldTour one at that, he stands alone as the best to have ever done it. Neither last year’s winner Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) nor Tour de France points champ Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) nor even Tour de France overall winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) could keep Matthews from claiming a record-setting third victory at the GP Québec on Friday.
The 33-year-old Australian out-sprinted Girmay and Groupama-FDJ’s Rudy Molard on the uphill run to the line after a late surge spearheaded by Pogačar and De Lie was brought to heel inside the last kilometer.
“It means much more than I can put into words,” Matthews said. “The season started really great with the Classics. Since then, until now, nothing has really fallen into place for me. Coming back here, a race that I know really well, to win my third Québec against what I think is probably the strongest field here was one of the most special for sure.
Matthews had gone some time without any big wins; he had only one other win on his palmarès this year in the UCI 1.1 Ruta de la Cerámica, and a stage win at the Giro d’Italia was his lone win in 2023. With that in mind, the media attention in Quebec was generally focused on Pogačar and others, despite Matthews’s track record here.
“Tadej is the number-one cyclist in the world at the moment. He’s done some things this year that we’ve never seen in cycling before, so I totally understand that,” Matthews said after his win, as Cyclingnews reports. “I’m a fan of him, also. So when he comes to Canada, it’s not so often, and I understand that the fans love him, and he’s great for the sport. For me, I’m just here to do my job, which is to win the race. It doesn’t matter how many interviews I have as long as long as I win the race.”
In short, Matthews saw the rationale for all the pre-race hype around people other than him, even as he showed his own credentials as a contender. After all, De Lie’s sprint win over Matthews in Quebec last year certainly seemed like it heralded a changing of the guard. Could Matthews, who turns 34 in two weeks, really keep up with the young whippersnappers?
Apparently, he could.
Friday’s win was a combination of timing and power. He waited as Bahrain Victorious put in the work to chase down Pogačar, De Lie, and De Lie’s Lotto teammates Maxim Van Gils and Jenno Berckmoes, and then he essentially led out the sprint from some 200 meters go. No one could come around him.
“I knew I didn’t have the peak power today, but I have a really long sprint, and I knew I had the power to do a 15-to-20-second sprint today,” he said.
Those 15 or 20 seconds of power proved that Matthews still has plenty left in the tank even as he marches into his mid-30s. That’s a good sign for Jayco-AlUla, which has generally been lacking in one-day successes. Astoundingly, you have to go all the way back to 2016, when Mat Hayman won Paris-Roubaix and Esteban Chaves won Il Lombardia for a team then called Orica-GreenEdge, to find this team’s last one-day wins at the WorldTour level.
The victory also raises Matthews’ profile as a potential team leader for Australia for the looming World Championships, an event that he has been oh-so-close to winning on more than one occasion. The hilly course may push Matthews to his limits, but if he can hold on to the finish, he has the kick to top the field.
“To bounce back here with the lead up to the World Championships with a win in Québec, it’s incredible,” he said.
Before that, he will have a shot at another WorldTour win Canada. He and the rest of the many big names in North America this weekend will take on the GP Montréal – which Matthews won back in 2018 – on Sunday.
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